


Altered Fate

by WingedLadyColette



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Black Dog, BoyxBoy, Death, F/M, Fluff, HOMRA - Freeform, M/M, Sector 4, blue king, colorless king - Freeform, gold king, silver king
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-24
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-03-08 20:26:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3222317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingedLadyColette/pseuds/WingedLadyColette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikoto showed up the night Tatara was shot, changing the course of the future. Tatara lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Saved

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Yeah, I did start another story. Sorry. But I really wanted to write this. There is very few, if any, I haven't actually read every single MikotoxTatara story that's multi-chapter so I wanted to write one myself and see how it goes. Let me know if you know of any, I think this couple is adorable. Anyway, let me know what you think. Enjoy!
> 
> Warnings: None really, maybe language.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing other than any OCs I end up making. :3
> 
> Word Count: 5,130

It's okay. It'll all work out in the end.

It was a mantra that Tatara told himself, and others, for as long as he could remember. Well, as long as he's known Mikoto and Kusanagi. For as long as Tatara has wanted to make people feel better around him. It has always come easily to him, even when he didn't want it to. He was a fervent believer in that. Perhaps he always thought that to himself. Perhaps it was something that helped him throughout his life.

So it seems well placed that those words would just keep spinning around in his head.

It's okay.

The manacle laugh fills Tatara's ears. When the white haired man turned to him, it was a shock to see the gun, but before he had the opportunity to even react, he was bleeding. A bullet. He was shot. He blacks out after just a moment, it's the hard hit to the ground that wakes him back up. He can hear the white haired man talking. He didn't catch all of it, but he did catch "Colorless King" and no matter how much he wanted to focus in deeper into the monologue, gather as much detail as possible, all he can do is writhe on the floor in pain.

He must have blacked out again for a moment, before he finally regains consciousness and pulls out his phone and rolling onto his back, letting out a soft whimper of pain. His fingers move and the phone dials. Someone picks up and he's mumbling, staring up the sky. The stars stare back down at him, twinkling. Now these looked like flickering candle lights.

There is a pulsing pain in his gut, radiating throughout his entire body. Pulse. Pulse. Pulse. It's a burning sensation like fire, peeling his skin back bit by bit. He blinks rapidly and slowly moves a hand over the wound, feeling warm blood overflowing into his hand, he presses down as hard as he can bare to try and keep his blood in while he forces himself to focus on the stars. Anything to forget the pain. And true candle light stars they are. Almost as good as the city lights.

That's right! Anna. It's going to be her birthday soon. He won't be able to tell her happy birthday. And that's the true crime. Homra's princess deserves nothing short of the best.

Princess. Second only to the King.

Mikoto. He let Mikoto down. Tatara just has to hope that Mikoto will want to be strong enough to get passed this. Tatara has no doubt that he can, it's just a matter of if his lazy King is willing to put in the effort.

It'll all work out in the end.

That makes a rue smile cross his face. Mikoto is going to be so mad at him. Tatara can just see the dangerous narrowing of his King and friend's eyes. Tatara has been on the receiving end of more of those than he cares to admit into his painfully short life. He was always doing thoughtless things and getting himself into messes that he can't get out of, Mikoto would probably say. Not with his voice, but with his eyes. Even when Tatara met him in middle school, high school Mikoto had an annoyed, if not an angry look on his face constantly.

But over the years, his looks have softened. At least a bit. But the muscles remember and sometimes it easily falls into that scowl. Tatara doesn't even realize he's crying until after he hears the sound of someone calling out his name. It's almost impossible to be able to see through the tears. He blinks slowly and the tears pool up and spill over the sides of his eyes, trailing down into his hair.

Yata's face comes into view. Even in the dark his eyes are wide and filling with tears. He can see Izumo too, looking around anxiously. Yata carefully pulls Tatara into his arms, holding onto him tightly. Both of them have clouds of breath forming around them. Especially Yata, who probably ran a good distance here, or kicked his skateboarding butt into gear.

"Tatara!" Yata says, eyebrows pulled together. "Who did this to you?" Tatara opens his mouth and blood spills over, he makes noises he hopes are not senseless noises. Yata's lower lip trembles.

"Don't make him speak!" Izumo says sharply, glancing over at them, his eyes fall onto the bleeding Homra member for a split second before he looks away again, seemingly unable to keep eye contact. "Come on, let's get him out of here."

Tatara swallows thickly as the cold begins to settle in around him. He can feel the energy pouring out of him. Or maybe it's just his blood. It's getting harder to tell if the blur in his vision is because of the tears or blood loss.

"It's okay. It'll all work out in the end..." Tatara mumbles, coughing weakly and feeling pain in his gut at the action. Which then brings about fresh tears. But he forces a smile onto his face and reaches out to touch Yata's cheek. He feels the darkness swallowing him up. But right before it does, he hears footsteps approaching.

Tatara, or at least a minute part of him, wanted to be mad, upset even, at this turn of events. But he couldn't. He was too tired to be mad about how his life is ending up. What he does have the strength to be mad about is that he won't be able to spend more time with the people in Homra. Dewa, Shohei, Eric, Izumo, Kamamoto, Chitose, Fujishima, Bando, Anna, and Mikoto.

He would give anything at this moment to be able to spend more time with those wonderful people. Every time he closes his eyes, all he can do is see their faces behind his eye lids and hear those words. But it doesn't sound as kind and hopeful as Tatara always tried to make it sound. It sounds, almost mockingly. Like the words were coming back, as if tauntingly.

"Give him to me." A voice above him orders and he feels Yata's grip on him shift. Another pair of arms wrap around him and lift him up, the bending at the waist brings shooting pain zipping though his entire body all the way to the ends of his fingers and toes. He throws his head back and cries out in pain.

"Be gentler!" Izumo's voice snaps, getting closer. "Yata, your jacket, press it against the wound, now."

"U-Uh, right!" Yata exclaims, his voice cracking slightly. The sound of clothes shuffling and then pain again on his burning abdomen.

Tatara cries out again, trying to push away the painful pressure but he doesn't have the strength. With the energy seeping out of him, it's taking the warmth with it, but Tatara was so out of it, he didn't even notice until the warmth started to lay over every inch of his body like a toasty blanket over him. This makes the dainty long haired man relax a bit, making it easier to fall into the blackness.

 

The darkness that was like syrup swallowed him up, but while he was beneath the surface, it turns into smooth smoke that flutters around him. He moves his hands around, feeling nothing but cool smoke. Off in the distance, there is the light sound of music. A smooth sound that reminds Tatara, almost painfully, of a very wonderful place, both in the real world and in his heart.

When he opens his eyes, he's sitting at the bar in Homra. The jukebox is playing softly behind him. Tatara runs his dingers along the smooth bar that Izumo loves so much. There is seemingly no one in the bar with him. His eyes roam the wall in front of him filled with a wide variety of alcohol. Everything was exactly as he remembers it. He turns to look out the front door to lead into the bar at the wall of windows and the light pouring into it. It's got to be about high noon. Tatara doesn't know how long he sits there, just admiring the space around him.

He's spent the better part of almost ten years sitting at this bar, looking around this room, while the members of the Red Clan flew into the bar, caused havoc, and then went flying out. There were a lot of wonderful moments and less than pleasing moments. This place is more home to Tatara than any other before it. There is such personality in the bar.

A great portion of it is purely Izumo, little touches that is so him. But the rest of it is made up of the rest of Homra's family. Like the jukebox that Tatara got, or the spare skateboard that Yata leaves behind in case something happens to his. The stray hair ribbon here or there that Anna would pull from her hair and tie around things in the bar - a game that she plays with Kamamoto, see how many he can find and how long they are there. A calendar pinned to the wall by Chitose who insisted on it being there so that no one would forget special occasions, birthdays, holidays, etc.

So much more. A true place to live. A true home. Izumo owned the bar, but Mikoto and Anna lived there mostly. Izumo lives there now more than he used to because of Mikoto and Anna. Tatara spends a lot of time there too, but does own an apartment not that far. They make decent money as Homra, both from the bar and bounty hunting.

Mikoto splits the bounty evenly amongst everyone that participates. His portion goes to Izumo, because the young King practically lived off of his friend. Izumo paid for everything for him. He housed him, fed him, and spent a fortune on the cigarettes that they share. Everyone else spends money here and there on both their beloved King and lovely Princess.

No one seems to mind, it's because of their King that they are all together. And they, because of Mikoto and Homra, have found a new family in each other. A lot of them have difficult childhoods or bad home lives currently, and find solitude in the family that they have away from home. There is arguments, there is a clash of personalities, but anyone here would fight tooth and nail to protect each other and their home here.

Tatara reaches up and runs a hand through his long, silky light brown hair, tugging at the ends a bit, laying his head down on his arm and closes his eyes. The room smells of tobacco, cologne and alcohol. It's a nice, relaxing smell, one he's grown used to over the years.

Tatara spends a lot of time there, walking around and reliving old memories. When he first started coming to Homra, regularly. When Mikoto became a real King. When he started meeting his future clansmen. Every moment played through this place like a movie on the big screen. He felt a whole slew of emotions; happy, sad, annoyed, excited, melancholy - a lot of melancholy - but mostly pride.

This wasn't just a bar. It was a home and a storybook. It told the lives of the Red Clan under Mikoto's rule. And it will continue to, hopefully long after Tatara is gone. At least, if Tatara has his way. He's always believed in Mikoto, it's just up to Mikoto to continue to believe in himself.

Tatara finally stands up. He had returned to his seat at the bar and laid his head down. He spent so much time just remembering, just seeing all the reasons he wanted to live just a little bit longer but this time in-between must come to an end eventually. He takes one more longing look around the bar before turning around and turning toward the front door. It's so bright out there. Even though he knows he's got to be there for a long time, it's still so bright out. Could this be the actual 'light' that is always described when someone dies and they have to go into the light to move on? Probably.

One of his biggest regrets is that he died so close to, if not on, Anna's birthday. The little princess of Homra, already had too many heart breaks for Anna's birthday to become just another day that everyone quietly lets pass them by with their eyes closed and willing it away. Tatara can only hope and pray that this doesn't become the case. In Tatara's opinion, he's most thankful for Anna's birthday. It's because of that, a reminder every single year, that their little princess was born. That is a day worth celebrating, every year.

Tatara walks over to the door and lays his hand on the handle before looking over his shoulder at the bar. In his mind's eye, he can see the furniture all pushed to the side and all of the members of Homra and sitting around, playing card games on the floor. They played old maid and go fish with Anna and then poker after she went to bed. On good days, both Mikoto and Izumo would join in. Most of the time they would sit out and just watch. Tatara's been told that he has both a really good and really bad poker face, depending on the day.

The memories make him smile softly. It makes his chest tighten and his heart yearn for those moments again. He didn't want those moments to end. He didn't want to say goodbye to that life. He feels like he's barely lived it. He contemplates going back to the bar and sitting, spending more times relishing in the precious memories he watched over and over on repeat for what feels like forever, only to move on to another and mimic the process.

But there is a nagging feeling, deep within his gut. He has to go now. He can't stay here any longer. He closes his eyes and envisions the wonderful people in his life. The men in Homra that have become like brothers. Anna, the little stoic, ice princess. Izumo, the strict but fair second in command. And Mikoto, the lazy, bored King that cares so much about protecting those important to him. They all come so easily to his mind and he feels that nagging tug in his chest, making him miss those beautiful imperfect people.

Finally, Tatara opens his eyes and turns back to the door, letting out a whoosh of breath before turning the knob and opening it. The light beyond is so bright it's blinding. But as cliché as it is, Tatara balls his hands into fists, lifts his chin, closes his eyes, unable to look at the world beyond without hurting his eyes and takes a step into the bright light.

 

The first thing Tatara feels is pain. It's strange at first. Shouldn't he be dead? Or, is, while in death, he suppose to live out the rest of eternity in pain from the wound that killed him. Slowly, very slowly, Tatara opens his eyes to see a darkened room around him. He can see darkened out shapes around the room. The only light in the room is the moon filtering in from the window between the two thin white curtains. No, there is a bit more light. Next to him, little lights on machines.

And he's not alone either. There is two other light breathing patterns in the room with him. The shadows of one, to his left, in a chair within arms reach of Tatara, and the other is to his right, on the couch. Tatara can see his jean pant legs, but the rest of his is obscured in shadows. Tatara turns back to the one he can't see at all and squints his eyes.

He moves slightly but whimpers softly as pain burns like lava in his gut and he settles back into the bed, taking a moment to slow down his pain-filled little gasps before he reached out with his left hand, summoning up his aura. It's not as intense or powerful as any of the others in Homra. But it manages to summon up enough power to make some light and slowly moves it closer to the figure next to him.

Inching closer and closer until the shadow shifts and something hot wraps around his wrist holding it in place. Tatara lets out a noise of surprise, straightening up slightly despite the pain, and blinks rapidly.

The red glow that surrounds his hand outlines the hand holding his wrist, moving up the arm, then shoulder and slowly works it's way over the entirety of the man's body, even making his eyes glow red. Tatara recognizes him right away and the tenseness of his body relaxes and he just stares into the fiery red that is just so Mikoto. It flutters around him, darkened and hotter than usual due to his obvious anger.

"You're finally awake," says the voice to Tatara's right. He glances over to see the person, now obviously a man, standing up and walking passed the bed to the little hall that leads to the hallway with the door to the bathroom and the one that leaves the room to turn on the lights. Tatara squeezes his eyes closed at the initial brightness before slowly opening it and letting his eyes take a moment to adjust.

The other man steps into view and it's Izumo. His hair and clothes are all messed up from sleeping and his eyes are squinting a bit from the light as well. He straightens out his clothes and runs a hand through his hair a few times to try and tame it. Tatara turns his head toward Mikoto again to see both of their aura's dying down.

He smiles, hoping that it can out cheerful and stronger than he thinks it is. But judging by the further narrowing of Mikoto's eyes, it probably doesn't.

"Hey, King," Tatara says softly.

Mikoto's facial expressions don't change, but his hand, easily wrapped around Tatara's wrist, tightens threateningly. His eyes are like melted gold stare at him, less than pleased. "Do you have any idea how stupid you are?"

Tatara feels his eyebrows twitch slightly and his smile, which for some reason is hard to hold, falters until it disappears completely. He can feel Mikoto's anger through the heat of his hand and the red flashes in his eyes. He opens his mouth, probably trying to come up with something witty or charming to say, but nothing comes to him and he just stares at Mikoto.

Finally, he says, "I'm sorry, King. Wh-" he roughly clears his throat. "What happened...? I thought..." I thought I was dead, Tatara didn't say but that doesn't mean that the words didn't hang in the air between them and that only seems to draw more of Mikoto's ire.

But it's Izumo, who speaks, stepping up next to Mikoto and laying a hand on his shoulder. The action seems intentional, probably to draw their hot blooded King back from the dark corners of his mind. "Mikoto, Tatara's hand is turning purple."

As soon as the words leave him and are processed by Mikoto, his eyes flicker down to see that, yes, he was squeezing hard enough to cut off circulation to Tatara's left hand and releases it as if it burned him. He roughly stuffs his hands into his pocket and stands up, dislodging Izumo's hand and walking around the bed to the window to look out it.

"Tatara," Izumo says, moving to sit in Mikoto's no longer occupied chair, crossing his legs to give the bed ridden young man a stern look. Mentally recalling the first time he saw Tatara in the hospital. He was beaten up by seniors. They broke his leg, arm and gave him numerous cuts and bruises. He was a middle schooler at the time. Sure, he was just a brat that wouldn't leave Mikoto alone, at first, but after that day, he became part of their friend... group? Izumo had to guess that now that there was three of them, they could be a group. But now, here he was, hospitalized once again.

Tatara slowly rubs his hands together, trying to get the blood to flow back to his hand properly. It kind of hurts and it makes his heart pound. He feels exhausted and his head feels a little light. He leans back into the bed a bit more, looking at Izumo with slightly hooded eyes. "Izumo?"

"Tell us what happened," Izumo instructs, brown eyes locked onto him.

Tatara lifts a hand to run through his hair, but all he can manage to do is tug at the bottom of his light brown hair, noting how gross it feels and wanting nothing more than to take a shower and wash the night away from him.

"I just went up to the roof and film the city lights, the same roof that we went to that one time, King. Remember?" Tatara looks over at the red haired man, still staring out the window, hands still deep into his pockets. He grunts in response, but says nothing so Tatara looks back over at Izumo, blinking tiredly. "I got up there and someone was already looking out over the view. A man... no," Tatara's eyebrows pull together. "He couldn't have been more than a teenager. Just a boy. Maybe sixteen or seventeen."

In Tatara's mind's eye, he can see the figure, hunched over the railing, laughing hysterically at nothing, his shoulders shaking. He runs a hand through his hair, that glowed in the moonlight, before turning around to face Tatara. Something glinted in the light. The young man had a crooked, cruel smile on his lips - just thinking about it now makes Tatara feel sick and want to sink into the ground and never come out again - and then... boom. Instant pain in his stomach.

Tatara has been beaten up a lot in his life. Once it landed him in the hospital, but never had he ever felt pain quite like this. It was one thing to walk - or limp - away from a battle with broken limbs and have to be bed ridden for a while. But as Tatara lay there, bleeding out, all alone, he knew for certain he was going to die. He was going to die and no one would be there by his side.

Shot. Tatara's been shot. He's been shot at before. But this time he was really shot. And it should have killed him.

The thought forms a lump in his throat and his throat just closes around it, making it hard to breath or really focus on anything other than that. He reaches a hand up and wraps it around his throat, then, abruptly, he throws the covers away, seeing the hospital gown and blue scrubs beneath, he roughly pulls up the gown. He can see Izumo stand up in his peripheral.

"Oi! Be careful with yourself!" the bartender snaps.

Tatara doesn't hear, or at least register what the man was saying, as he pulled the gown up to reveal the once smooth, unblemished - which is surprising with how many times he's been kicked in the stomach or chest - skin there is now wrapped up in crisp medical tape. His skin almost appears to be translucent and all the blood rushing through his body because of adrenaline makes his feel sick. And cold. So very cold.

He runs his hand over the bandages when he touches the spot that brings him pain and he grits his teeth, laying his head back to stare at the ceiling. That could have been it. He could have died. He never gave a lot of thought to how he was going to die, but he certainly didn't think it would happen like that, so soon into his life.

But he can't think about that. He didn't think he was strong enough to focus on that. It brought out a pulsing pain to his stomach. He forces the thoughts deep into the back of his mind. He compress those thoughts into as small of a box as he can mentally make it and set it aside for later. He doesn't have the energy to fully analyze the situation right now. His stomach hurts, head hurts, throat hurts and he feels like he hasn't slept in two days. He just has to take his mind off of the pain and onto something else. Like... like... where was he?

Hospital. Yes, he runs his hand over the bandages again. He was in the hospital. Yata and Izumo must have gotten him here. No, there was someone else there at the end. That voice...

"Give him to me." That was Mikoto's voice. It was Mikoto who was there at the end, after Tatara had already closed his eyes and began to pass out. He didn't see him, but he was there.

"King..." Tatara lowers his head to look over at the golden eyed man now staring back at him, no longer angry, now just indifferent.

"You nearly bled out in my arms," Mikoto says, narrowing his eyes. "I cauterized the wound. It was the only thing that kept you alive long enough to get to the hospital."

Izumo flops back onto the chair, an annoyed look on his face. "Yeah, you nearly bled out in my car, moron. You should be more defensive. More wary of the people around you." The look didn't last long, falling into a look of worry. "Are you okay, Tatara? I mean... you almost..." he sighs, shaking his long blond haired head. He finally looks back at Tatara. "How do you feel?"

Tatara shakes his head, forcing a weak smile. "I'll be fine, thanks to the King. I'm just... shaken, is all."

Mikoto walks over to him and sits down on the bed, right by Tatara's stomach, not minding the slight incline of the bed for Tatara's sake. He scratches the back of his head, messing up his already messy red hair. He doesn't say anything for a long time, lost in his thoughts. Izumo and Tatara just stare at the back of the form fitting white t-shirt that the red King is usually found wearing. It fits like a second skin and moves when he does, leaning forward to put his elbows on his knees.

Tatara reaches forward, putting a hand on Mikoto's forearm. As soon as his skin touches his King's he pulls back, burned. Mikoto seems surprised too. He turns toward Tatara and reaches out to take the retreating hand, holding onto it tightly. Tatara almost wanted to pull away from Mikoto's scorching hot hands, but this is his King. There's no need to pull away.

The long fair haired young man, forced himself to relax and focus on Mikoto's face. It was twisted into a look of confusion, and then anger. He turns his head away but keeps hold of Tatara's hand.

"You're freezing," Mikoto says gruffly, eyebrows pulled together, annoyed

Freezing? Yes. He was shaking pretty bad.

With his free hand, he pulled the thin gown down and then the covers up to the middle of his chest, burying one hand beneath it on his stomach for warmth. A moment later, the burning heat dims a bit but spreads over his entire body. At first, it hurts. Not unbearably so, but enough to make him close one eye and grimace. But after a moment, it stops hurting and becomes soothing.

"The date..." Tatara finally says after a few minutes of silence. Everyone just looking around the room at everything but each other. "Anna's birthday..."

"It's already passed," Izumo says, letting out a long sigh. "You've been in here for three days. But don't worry," Izumo smiles. "Our little princess insisted on waiting until you woke up before celebrating."

A small, genuine, but tired smile crosses Tatara face. "She didn't have to do that," he murmurs.

"That's what we told her you'd say," the bartender laughs. "I'll call them all up in the morning. Better late than never, right? I'm sure Anna would agree to it."

"Where is she now...?" the hobbyist asks, eyelids growing heavy from a mixture of previous exhaustion and the warmth offered kindly by his King and friend. "Not home alone... right?"

Mikoto snorts and Tatara can practically see both of his two oldest friends rolling their eyes.

"No," Izumo says, indignant, "what do you think we are? Incompetent? She's spending the night with Yata and his mother." A short laugh escapes him. "She thinks Anna's cute as a button. Anna's a little put off, but you know her. She won't complain if Mikoto asks her to do anything."

Tatara's miles widens a fraction of an inch, before his eyes finally slip closed. "That... that's good. I was worried there for a moment."

Another snort from their illustrious King. "We'll talk later," he orders, eyes narrowed at nothing in particular. "Sleep, now."

"Okay..." Tatara says softly, smile widening just a bit more. "But only if you do something for me in return." Mikoto tilts his head slightly toward Tatara to show he's listening. Just a little more upturn to that smile. "Can you scratch my foot? It's itchy and I can't really move to scratch it... with my stomach all wrapped up." He lets out a tired, breathy laugh.

Mikoto blinks once, twice, thrice, before growling. He ruffles Tatara's head, a little rougher than necessary before gruffly ordering him to sleep once more. And it was an order from his King, who was he to disobey?

And then Tatara slept. Let the horrors of tomorrow be dealt with tomorrow.


	2. Bring Homra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: So there is a bit of buzz for this story. I think I'll put up the next chapter and see what happens. Thanks so much for all your support thus far. Let me know what you think! Enjoy!
> 
> Warnings: None really, maybe language.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing other than any OCs I end up making. :3
> 
> Word Count: 5,286

Tatara opens his eyes to look around the empty hospital room, able to make out more of it now that he's awake. Mikoto and Izumo are gone and after a minute of silence, he pushes himself up slowly in his bed, cringing in pain from both the soreness of his back at laying in the uncomfortable bed for so long and the hot, dull pain in his gut from his bullet wound. He holds his hand over his wound, clenching his teeth at the dulling pain, before relaxing again, looking around the empty room.

It's nice, considering Tatara didn't have any insurance and Homra wasn't exactly rolling in cash. He runs his hand through his hair, cringing again when he feels the grime in his hair. He needs a shower, like really bad. He pulls the covers out from around him and scoots to the edge of the of the bed. Looking at the machines next to him and the wires attached to the crook of his right elbow. He doesn't know what any of them are doing, but he wants to get out of them immediately.

He wants to shower and he wants to go back to Homra and sleep on the couch. He runs a hand up his arm, looking around the room, wishing that Izumo and Mikoto weren't... where ever they were right now. His phone has to be around here somewhere. Maybe he can call up Kamamoto and Yata and they can help break him out of here and they can go home and have Anna's birthday party.

He squints out the window to see that it's probably getting later into the morning. Probably nine or ten o'clock in the morning. Mikoto and Izumo were both gone and Tatara doesn't know what they could be doing or where could they have gone.

"Knock knock," a female voice behind him says and the sound of footsteps walking into the room. It's a nurse in light green scrubs, she falters when she sees that Tatara is sitting up. "Oh no, Mr. Totsuka, don't be sitting up right now."

Tatara waves his hand around dismissively. "I'm okay. I just need a shower."

"Oh no, you can't be doing that," she says walking over to him and putting a small pale hand onto his shoulder. "You were shot a few days ago, you need to rest."

Tatara shakes his head. "No, I really need a shower. I'm currently repulsive to be around, and I need to be getting home."

The nurse started shaking her head too as soon as Tatara started talking. "No can do. You still have to rest. You aren't fully healed. If you want to get cleaned up we can give you a sponge bath."

Tatara looks up at her, taking in her dark brown hair pulled back into a loose ponytail and big dark brown eyes. He sighs quietly and takes her hand in his and gives her a soft, charming smile. "Thanks, but there is no way I'm going to take a sponge bath." She opens her mouth to protest but he continues, "And those two men that were with me last night, the redhead and the blond? Where are they?"

The nurse adapts a look that Tatara recognizes as the look people usually get when they think about his intimidating King. A small smile pulls at the corner of his mouth when he thinks about Mikoto standing in the background as Izumo talks with the doctors at how he's doing. Either looking away or staring holes right through the man. Regardless he knows that Mikoto makes people one of two things: uncomfortable or interested.

"Um, they are outside... smoking," she says slowly, eyes adapting a far away look before she shakes herself from it and looks down at Tatara, probably trying to figure out how Mikoto fit in with both Izumo and Tatara. Izumo was really suave and cool, Tatara is very dainty and charming, and Mikoto is lazy and scary. They were a very odd trio. She's in for a surprise when the rest of Homra show up.

"I see," Tatara says. "Now, Miss...?"

"Ayona," the nurse says.

"Can I please go take a shower. Please?" Tatara looks up at her with big, doe eyes. "I'll be on my best behavior. Trust me. It's either a shower here or a shower at home. Pick your poison."

She looks hesitant. "You really should just take a sponge bath, it's the safest for someone in your position. I really must insist."

"And I must continue to decline," Tatara says, smiling charmingly up at her. "Please take these things out of me." He holds his arm up with the wires attached. "I'm okay now."

Ayona shakes her head again, looking very uncomfortable. "One of that is for dehydration, which we will eventually have to take out, but the other one is for your morphine and you need that."

Tatara looks down at the two tubes in his arms and then looks over at the machines, wondering if he could tell the difference if he looked hard enough but after a full minute of silence, he looks back over at Ayona. "A really fast one. I'll let you do all the preppy things you need to for me before, but I want to be able to shower in peace."

"And your clothes?" Ayona asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well, I was going to keep them on, but maybe that's a bad idea, you think?" He grins up at her playfully.

The corners of her lips quirk up a bit. "No, I mean, you could rip your stitches trying to remove them."

Tatara considers for a moment. "Okay..." he squints his eyes at the clear blue sky out the window passed his nurse. "Am I wearing underwear beneath these scrubs? At this point I think you would know better than me."

Ayona's face turns a bright red. "I don't know!" She says embarrassed and trying to hold back a smile. "Why does that matter?"

"Because I could shimmy out of them," he says, pleased. "I'm skinny enough."

Ayona rolls her eyes, but turns away a bit to hide her obvious embarrassment. Finally she turns back to him after about a minute of silent consideration and asks, "Can I talk with some of the other nurses? It won't be long, I promise."

Tatara nods. "I just need to shower soon. I'm sure I'll have guests over soon enough and I'm disgusting."

The nurse nods too, slipping from the room, giving Tatara a chance to really look at himself and he's appalled at just how pale he is. He honestly lost a lot more blood than he thought. Even now he's still a little lightheaded. He wiggles his toes and they all obey and he cringes a bit when they touch the cold time floor. He holds himself rigidly around the torso, trying his hardest to not aggravate his wound anymore than he already has. As soon as he showers, he'll rest up, he promises himself, just let him wash up.

Every time Tatara closes his eyes, he can see the slightly darkened out figure of the man that shot him. Hunched over, laughing. Tatara couldn't imagine what he could have been laughing at. He was just staring out over the view of the city, laughing hysterically as if someone had said a really funny joke, but there was no one there but him and Tatara.

Hearing the laugh echoing in his ears is enough to make Tatara shiver a bit, feeling his skin crawl. He wraps his arms around himself, trying to force the sickening feeling tickling him beneath the skin. He opens his eyes and stares at the bright blue sky beyond, forcing the images away for now. Right as he does, he hears the doors open behind him and the nurse walks back in, telling Tatara can take his shower and if he wants to be alone, then he can, but she has to stay close while he's in there to make sure he's okay.

Tatara agrees to this. Lets her remove the wires in his arms and wrap up his torso in some saran wrap to keep the water from getting the bandages wet and ultimately the stitches beneath that's basically the only thing holding him together. After she finishes, Tatara doesn't think he can bed his torso in any way, shape of form, even if he wanted to.

Thankfully, Mikoto and Izumo had yet to return, so they didn't see Ayona helping him out of his paper thin hospital gown and getting the shower ready. It was nothing big or spectacular, just an all white tub with chrome showerhead. She turns the shower on and turns it onto warm for Tatara before reluctantly looking between Tatara and the door, still looking uncomfortable.

"Thanks," Tatara says, fighting the urge to reach up and run his hand through dirty light brown locks. "I think I've got it from here."

Ayona nods, backing up toward the door slowly, as if she's expecting Tatara to just suddenly change his mind and ask her to stay but that's not going to happen. Tatara needs a few moments just for himself. Clean the horrible experience from his skin and start forgetting about it permanently. That, and if Anna and the rest of Homra are going to be coming over today, there is no way he's going to be around them all gross.

"Okay," Ayona says, eyebrows pulled together nervously. "I'll be right out there... just call me if you need anything. Anything at all."

"Thanks again," Tatara says, half turning away before a thought occurs to him. "Oh, and Ayona-san?"

Her head snaps back over in Tatara's direction, a hopeful look in her eyes. "Yes?"

"Don't be afraid of Mikoto when he returns, he's not as scary as he appears to be, okay?" He smiles, painstakingly aware that it lacks the same charm and sweetness that he used to have a week ago, but he just can't seem to muster it up like he was once able to.

Ayona blinks, brown eyes wide in confusion, before she realized who he was referring to and she paled a bit, obviously not believing him. She nods slowly, face steadily draining of color as she heads out and closes the door behind her. Tatara waits for the distinct click of the door closing all the way before he finally shimmies out of his thin scrubs, wishing that it wasn't so cold. Even with steam steadily filling the room now that the heat is being contained, it's still so cold his whole body is covered in gooseflesh.

Once he steps under the warm spray of water, shivering slightly before his body begins to warm up with the water and sighs in relief. He starts cleaning his hair, making note of the tiny, generic shampoo bottles. He cleans his hair as thoroughly as he can, ignoring the throbbing pain in his gut. It feels so nice to finally clean his hair and body. It's weird to run his hands over his body and feel his hands run over the plastic around his stomach. He has to physically restrain himself from picking at the clear barrier protecting his bandages.

A good portion of his time is spend just sitting under the spray with his eyes closed, trying to imagine that by cleaning his body, he is somehow washing away the horrible near-death experience that he just went through a few days ago and while he knows that's not what's happening, it still makes him feel better. At least for now.

But alas, nothing good can last forever as Tatara has to get out of the shower for the steam and heat is quickly making him light headed. Luckily, sometime while he was out cold, someone, and Tatara's willing to bet it was Izumo, brought some clothes for him. Pajamas and other toiletries. That a few other things that Tatara will have to really dig through when he's got some free time.

He turns the shower off and steps out, pausing for a moment to try and steady himself before grabbing his new clothes, long black pajama pants that he has to fold around his hips so he's not walking around on the bottoms of his pants. And a big plain white tee-shirt. Once he's all dressed he dries his hair and nudges all the dirty laundry into a pile in the corner of the room to make it easier for whoever has to clean up after him. He brushes his teeth, silently thanking Izumo once again, and puts on some deodorant, running his fingers through his hair a few times as a poor substitute for a comb before stepping out of the bathroom and into the cold hospital room, immediately shivering.

"So, how's he doing, Ayona-san?" Izumo asks, having finally returned from his smoke break. It couldn't have been too long ago, Tatara didn't even stay in the shower long enough for his hands to really prune at all.

"Good, I think," Ayona says, sounding slightly nervous. Tatara is willing to bet that Mikoto is in the room. "He's very lively."

"I should hope so," Izumo says, "he wouldn't be Tatara if he wasn't."

Tatara steps around the corner tot he room to see Izumo sitting on the couch and Mikoto is sitting in the chair next to the bed and Ayona is standing by the television across from the bed about three feet from the couch. Her arms are wrapped around herself and she's shifting slightly, nervously. She seems relaxed enough around Izumo, but every time she glances over at Mikoto and sees his emotionless, lazy eyes staring back at her, she shifts uncomfortably.

"I told you, Ayona-san," Tatara says, walking over to the bed feeling exhausted. He sits down slowly, making sure not to aggravate his gut. "There's no need to be nervous. Mikoto is like a lion, fierce in appearance but he's actually very lazy and would rather lounge around doing nothing." He smiles over at his King when the golden eyed man grunts at him. "Sorry, King."

Mikoto grunts again, but says nothing while Ayona goes to work reattaching the wires and heart monitor.

"How are you feeling, Totsuka-san?" Ayona asks, avoiding any chance of locking eyes with Mikoto, regardless of Tatara's words. "How's the pain?"

"Manageable," Tatara says, laying back into the bed hoping that his head is going to be done spinning soon. He closes his eyes. "Are we going to take the plastic off of my stomach?"

Ayona hums in affirmation and lifts his shirt, pulling at the plastic end at his side and slowly unraveling it. Tatara has to sit up so that he didn't have to hover over the bed and strain his stomach any more than it already has today. He finally settles back down when she nods and leans back again, closing his eyes.

"Okay, the bandages still look good so we'll keep them on for now, but I'll need to change them later on today, alright?" Ayona asks, marking something on Tatara's chart that was placed on the arm of the couch closest to the television.

Tatara nods, pulling the covers up over his lap. He tries to relax back into the uncomfortable bed. At this moment, he wanted nothing more than to curl up on the couch in Izumo's bar.

"Alright, call me if you need anything," Ayona says, shuffling out of the room quickly. After she shuts the door behind her, there is a long moment of silence. Tatara sinks into the bed a bit.

"How are you feeling?" Izumo asks, adjusting a bit on the couch that he's probably been living in for the past few days. The thought immediately makes Tatara feel bad. Homra is Izumo's life and it probably pains him being away from it for as long as he has been.

"I'm okay," Tatara says, opening his eyes to look over at the blond man on the couch. "When is the others coming over?"

Izumo's eyebrows raise over the top of his usual sunglasses. "Are you sure you're feeling up to it, Tatara? There's no need to rush. I mean, yeah, everyone is anxious to see you but they can wait a few more days if they need to. Don't push yourself."

Tatara smiles kindly. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine. I actually really want to see them. And I want to celebrate Anna's birthday. I really do. I..." Almost didn't get the chance to, Tatara didn't say, but the words floated around the room menacingly. A reminder to just how close Tatara was from not being here today. The three men just sat there in silence for about a minute, letting those words sink in.

Finally, Izumo stands up, pulling his phone from his pocket. "Alright, then. I'll give the gang a call, see who's ready to come up here. I'll head back to the bar to pick up my gift for Anna, where's yours?"

Tatara smiles. "It's actually in the coffee cup back in the kitchen. That one that everyone got for Mikoto that he never uses."

"The red and black one?" Izumo asks. Tatara nods and Izumo rolls his eyes. "I bet Mikoto forgot that that was even for him." The two both turn their attention to their lazy King, who was looking between them, but obviously not listening to a word either said.

"Hm?" he hums, wondering why the blond and brunet were both staring at him. Tatara smiles kindly and Izumo shakes his head. Mikoto tilts his head ever so slightly, the two long red strands in front of his face fall to the side at the movement. "What?"

"Never mind," Izumo says dismissively. "I'm going to head back to the bar and pick up a few things. Do you want anything, Mikoto?" The Red King shakes his head mutely. Izumo nods and looks over at Tatara. "Anything else you want picked up?"

Tatara shakes his head. "Not really. At least not now. Maybe some movies or something to kill time while I'm here. Oh, and my guitar. Please," he says sweetly, smiling. "I don't know how long I'm going to be in here."

Izumo waves his concern away. "So long as you're getting better, who cares?" He shrugs his shoulders and pulls his jacket on before heading for the door. "Alright, I'll be back. Mikoto, don't scare the hospital staff while I'm gone."

Mikoto narrows his eyes slightly but says nothing, watching Izumo leave.

"King," Tatara says, turning his head over to his slouching friend.

Mikoto looks over at him, raising an eyebrow. "...yeah?"

Tatara rests his head back against the thin pillows, staring into his King's eyes. "You can go with him if you want. It's got to be a lot more interesting than sitting around here with me. Have you even gone home since I got here?"

Mikoto nods. "I couldn't just walk around all bloody."

Tatara squints a bit at his King. "Okay then. Point taken. But seriously, it's okay. If you want to go stretch your legs or something, I don't mind."

Mikoto stares at him for a long, drawn out moment. "Do you want me to leave?" He finally asks.

"No!" Tatara says, sitting up a bit. "No, I don't... I just... this can't be interesting, King. I just want to make sure you're not wasting your time... I don't know." He gestures around the room. Mikoto follows the motion with his eyes for a few seconds before returning his steady, lazy gaze back to Tatara, waiting for him to elaborate. Tatara sighs, leaning back into the bed. "Never mind, King, never mind."

Mikoto nods, leaning back into his chair, propping up his right elbow on the arm of the chair and resting his chin on his curled fist, looking much like a King sitting on his throne even in this hospital room. Tatara smiles faintly, admiring his King. Ever since Tatara first saw Mikoto, he knew that there was something about the older boy that was special. Did he know about Mikoto being an actual King? No, but he wasn't all that surprised when it happened. It just seemed to fit the perpetually angry red head.

He attracted people to his side whether he wanted to or not and he knew how to make them loyal to him, whether he intended to or not. There was just something about him that attracted Tatara right away. And it was a great honor to be accepted by the young man he had grown to greatly admire. And here they are, eight years later and the young man no one thought would amount to anything, except for Tatara, naturally, was a King of a clan and sitting in this hospital room watching over him like a red headed guardian.

"King," Tatara says softly, pulling the covers up a little bit more to try and warm him up.

"Yeah?" Mikoto asks, still leaning against his fist.

"Thank you for being here. I really appreciate it," Tatara says. "And for saving me too. If it wasn't for you..."

Mikoto closes his eyes, pressing his lips into a thin line for a second before he relaxes and opens his eyes again. "You are too reckless with your life, Tatara. You need to stop being so thoughtless. I'm not going to always be there." As soon as the words left his lips, his eyes narrow dangerously, as if he hadn't thought this all the way through.

Tatara nods, running his hands up and down his arms a bit, still cold. "I know. I'm sorry."

Mikoto sighs, glancing past Tatara to the window. "Forget it."

A pause, then, "Are you mad, King?"

"Yes."

Tatara blinks very slowly, watching the red head closely. "At me?"

"Yes."

Tatara smiles a bit, watching as Mikoto blinks slowly, lazily even. That's a look he's seem many times before and it brings a sense of happiness at the normality of it all. "Do you want to take a nap, King?" He can't help but ask with a slight teasing tone to his voice.

A pause, thoughtful consideration crosses the Red King's face before he nods. "Yes."

Tatara scoots to the far side of the bed. "Come on. I hope Anna doesn't mind if I borrow your warmth. Yes, I do have an ulterior motive." He laughs. Mikoto tilts his head a bit more as if he didn't understand right away before he pushes himself to his feet and walks over to the bed, reaching out and touching Tatara;s cheek. As per usual, the King's touch is a fiery one but it feels nice to Tatara.

After a moment of debate, Mikoto accepted the offer and squeezes into the small space. Tatara sits up and waits for Mikoto to find a comfortable spot before slowly lowering himself to rest his head by the King's shoulder, curled slightly on his side. The bed is small enough for them to be touching, like Tatara's knees are settled on top of Mikoto's and the length of Mikoto's right arm is brushing against Tatara's two hands and forearms. Mikoto's hands are settled on his stomach and he shifts a bit, trying to find a nice place to relax in before he stops moving.

Immediately Tatara is rewarded from the closeness of his King by the warmth spreading around him as Mikoto's aura encompasses himself and Tatara. The slightly shivering young man begins to relax, his eyes getting heavy and they droop closed. Mikoto smelled a mixture of tobacco, shampoo and whatever deodorant he was wearing. It was nice. It was familiar.

Tatara doesn't know if Mikoto was actually interested in taking a nap and the couch was just not comfortable enough for the lazy king, or if he was still in a high enough degree of protective lion mode that the closeness to one of his hurt pride members was enough to sooth the protective part of him, Tatara didn't known. But either way, it was nice to have his King and long time friend there by his side.

Tatara maybe got ten minutes of sleep next to his King before the door to his room opened up and the Homra gang came filing in. For a brief moment, snuggling close enough to the King to touch the older man's shoulder with the tip of his nose, he wanted to wish them away and enjoy this warm silence. But as soon as the thought occurred to him, it quickly vanished and he forced himself to pull away from his shifting King.

Mikoto sat up on the left side of Tatara's bed and rubs the back of his head, making room for Tatara to turn onto his back and face the rest of Homra. Luckily the bed was at an incline so that he wouldn't have to strain his eyes to look at everyone.

"See?" Chitose says, looking down at Anna who's little hand was wrapped up by his larger one. "I told you he was going be alright." Anna nods slowly, staring at Tatara with large red eyes.

"Tatara," Shohei says, making his way over to the dainty man's side, standing opposite to where the Mikoto was sitting. "How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?"

"Of course he's in pain, Shohei," Bando says, annoyed. The light in the room reflecting off his sunglasses. "He was only shot a few days ago, of course he's going to still be in pain." He realized his mistake as soon as the words left his lips for his face visibly pales. "Oh man, Tatara, I am so sorry! That sounded way less insensitive in my head."

Tatara smiles faintly, shaking his head, ignoring the throbbing pain his gut at the mention of the wound. "It's alright, Bando, I know what you mean. No offense taken."

Shohei smiles sympathetically over at his friend before turning back to Tatara and holding up a plastic Tupperware bowl with a dark blue lid toward the dainty man. "It's soup. I used to have it when I was sick as a kid. It helped me feel better. I know you aren't sick but it will help you start building your strength." He offers, smiling kindly.

Just seeing the bowl in front of him made Tatara's stomach growl in hunger. He hadn't realized how hungry he was until offered food. And it looked like it would be good. He accepts the bowl happily. "Thanks Shohei, that's very kind of you." What was also good was that it was warm to the touch. Not as warm as Mikoto, but the warmth did seep into his fingers from the plastic.

"No problem," Shohei says, beaming. He scoots back and lifts Anna up so that she can sit on the bed next to Tatara. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her signature red marble and holds it up to her eye and focusing on Tatara, her forehead creased slightly in concentration.

"Are you in pain, Tatara?" she asks, voice soft.

Tatara fills his mind with happy, encouraging thoughts, using them to block the young mind reader from delving deeper into his psyche where it was aware of the throbbing in his stomach. It's nothing horrible, but he would still rather Anna know nothing about it. "I'm okay, actually. A lot better now that my princess has come to heal me with her smiles," Tatara says charmingly, smiling down at the young girl.

His words break her look of concentration, making her blush faintly and the very corners of her lips turn upward, lowering the hand holding the marble to her lap. Tatara reaches out and pats her softly on the head before looking around the room at all the Homra members finding places to sit. Kamamoto, Chitose and Bando are sitting on the couch, Shohei is sitting on the other chair on the other side of the couch close to the television, Fujishima is propped up against the shelf right next to Shohei, arms crossed over his chest while Yata is sitting at the end of Tatara's bed, sitting on it all the way with his legs pulled up and crossed Indian style.

Izumo enters about ten seconds later with a few bags, one a bright red one, obviously Anna's gift and the others were overnight bags. He lays those on the floor and walks over to the only other vacant seat.

"Do you want to sit here, Mikoto?" Izumo asks, gesturing to the seat.

Mikoto shakes his head, looking content where he was sitting on the bed next to Tatara's hip. Izumo shrugs and sits himself down in the chair and looking around the room. "Fujishima, do you want to go see if there is another chair out there that the nurses can let us borrow?"

He shakes his head. "I'm fine for now."

"Where's Dewa?" Yata asks, looking around the room for the only other missing Homra member.

"He was right behind me," Izumo says. "He's got the cake." As soon as he said that, Tatara's stomach growled again, making him blush and glance over at a grinning Shohei.

"You wouldn't happen to have brought a spoon with you, would you?"

Shohei nods, pulling out a plastic baggy with a spoon inside giving it to Anna to give to Tatara. "I do," he says, laughing.

"No one minds if I eat this, do they? I'm starved," Tatara asks, glancing around the room. There's a series of "no, go ahead"s and "why would we? You're the one that's hurt" and of course the famous, "No, eat," from Mikoto. Tatara smiles, pulling off the lid and setting it down on the table next to him and sniffing the broth, humming appreciative. "It smells good, Shohei, did you make it?"

Shohei nods. "Yep. It might not be the best soup in the world, but it's still good for you."

"Sorry, I'm late," Dewa says, walking in with a bright red cake. He lays it on the counter. "Hey, Tatara. How do you feel?"

"Good," Tatara says, taking a sip of the warm soup, humming again as the warm liquid slides down his throat, warming him up further. "Delicious, thanks Shohei." The brown haired young man, beams again, pleased.

"Okay Anna," Izumo says, leaning back in his chair. "Ready to open some gifts?"

Anna nods, blushing even more.

"Let's get started!" Yata says, reaching into his pocket. "Me, first!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MakoStorm: I couldn't agree more with you. They are such a cute pairing, I just couldn't help myself. I had to make a story for them. I know, right. I thought that this would have been the first thing people would have thought to write, so I was kind of surprised. But lucky me, right? Well, here was the next chapter. I hope you liked it! :D
> 
> Azora: And here was more! Haha. Yes, he is just so sweet, I love him so much. I always suspected that there may have been a deeper meaning as to why Mikoto's death followed Tatara's. :3 It's love, I'm sure. XD
> 
> Thanks,   
> ~Foreverlovedgirl


	3. Anna's Party

Anna had her present half open when Shohei asked, "Has anyone seen Eric today? Or in the last two days? I haven't."

Anna paused in opening her gift for everyone to look around the room to notice that yes, the blond haired, blue eyed young man was not there with them. Silent conversations are shared with their eyes, making faces at one another. Anna lays down the gift and tilts her head, thick blanket of long white hair slips over her tiny shoulder.

"Should we wait...?" She asks, looking around the room. She wasn't mad or upset. She would wait without complaint if that's what everyone wanted. She had no problems with such things. The gifts could wait, they weren't going anywhere.

"No," Fujishima says, shifting slightly against the hard wood digging against his back. "You can keep going, Anna. I talked with Eric when I got the call from Izumo. He said he's going to be late and that we should just go on without him. He'll be here as soon as he can." He adjusts himself again, moving away a bit from the wood before leaning back against it in a new position.

"Are you sure?" She asks.

Fujishima nods. "Yes, go on."

Anna looks over at Mikoto for the final go ahead. He nods too, leaning forward, propping elbows onto his knees, looking over his shoulder at Anna. She continues to open the present, eyes widening slightly at the new set of bright red ribbons. Her red eyes flicker up to the short red haired boy a faint smile crossing her lips. Yata, who was watching Anna's face closely for any sign of unhappiness or dislike from her girl, sags a bit in relief and blushes at her little smile.

"Thank you, Yata," she says softly making the older boy blush even deeper.

"N-No problem," Yata murmurs, reaching up and scratching the back of his head. He looks away, avoiding everyone's eyes, embarrassed. The playful jeers of the other Homra members make at the skater boy's expense does nothing but sour his mood. "Assholes," he mutters under his breath after everyone has finally calmed down. Anna opens her mouth, about to ask why Yata said that but her red eyes find Mikoto and he shakes his head dismissively, so she drops it.

Izumo stands up, holding the little red bag, offering it to the little girl, "Happy birthday, Princess Anna," he says, smiling down at her kindly.

Anna accepts the gift, laying the new ribbons back into the box. She sets it to the side neatly. Izumo's gift is a gift card to build-a-bear and a new little Lolita hat. The others started to hand over their gifts for the little girl to open. More red marbles, a coloring book and crayons, the complete first season of this new show that she's obsessed with, tickets to the amusement park in a month's time, tickets to the zoo, and bright red comforter set for her bed.

It's right then that Eric walks in. A bag in one hand that's definitely Anna's gift, and something very familiar in his other hand. It was Tatara's camera.

"About time, Eric!" Yata says, twisting around at the end of the bed to look over at the blond.

Eric pauses a moment to look at Yata before saying, in English, "Feeling a bit feisty today, Chihuahua?" Then, without waiting for the expected angry response from the vanguard of Homra, Eric walks over to Tatara and holds out the camera. "I got it fixed for you," he says in Japanese this time.

Tatara reaches out and takes the camera, feeling it's familiar weight before lowering it to his lap, not liking the way his heart rate picks up just looking at the thing that used to bring him great joy. And not in a good way. But Tatara smiles easily, or tries to, up at the younger boy. "Thank you, Eric. I appreciate it. I hope it wasn't too much."

Eric shakes his head in dismissal before turning to Anna and holding out his gift. "Sorry for being late, Anna."

"It's okay," she says softly, accepting the present. "Thank you." She opens the gift, pealing back the red wrapping paper carefully, while Tatara moves the camera from one hand to the other before laying it on the table next to him, ignoring the look Izumo sends his way. There was a subtle shaking to his hands that he didn't like, nor did he feel like acknowledging. He hides his hands under the covers, hoping that it's just the cold causing them to shake. One day, soon, Tatara will be able to return completely to normal and this entire thing will just be one big, forgotten, nightmare.

But for now, it's fresh and in some ways, Tatara blames his way of always going around filming things for him being up on the rooftop that night. If he hadn't wanted to video tape the city lights, he never would have gotten shot and almost missed Anna's birthday party. Tatara adjusts himself a bit in his uncomfortable bed. What he wouldn't give to be back in his own apartment. In his own bed. Or at least a bed meant for human beings.

He runs his fingers through his dried hair, letting out a soft breath. The pain in his stomach is almost completely gone, which is probably due to the small beep of the machines next to him injecting him with medicine. He's definitely not looking forward to when he has to be weaned off.

Admittedly, when Tatara adjusted himself in the bed, he was a little bit closer to the King, missing his warmth already. He's starting to get a headache from the lack of good night's sleep - or maybe it's the drugs, he doesn't know - but has to reach up with one hand and gently message his forehead. When Fujishima's orange eyes flicker over to him, taking in Tatara's pained look, he opens his mouth, probably to suggest that the rest wait until later and that they let Tatara rest but the brown haired man shakes his head, smiling kindly and lowering his hands back onto his lap. A moment of hesitation, before he slips them under the covers again.

Tatara's gift for Anna was a simple silver chain necklace with a ruby at the end. He helps her put it on and is relieved to be alive when she flushes softly, fingering the red gem with a tiny smile on her face. It made all the pain that Tatara has yet to feel, but knows is in his future, worth it. That tiny, happy smile always made everything worth it.

His love for Anna and the rest of Homra will make any pain he feels worth it. So long as he can see them alive and well and happy, then he will endure anything.

Tatara shifts slightly in his bed, trying to find some comfort. There was a bit of a throbbing pain in his gut, now. His medicine must be wearing off. He sits in silence, watching everyone laughing and cheering as Anna opens up more presents. Tatara relaxes as much as he can in the bed, relishing in the protective barrier his friends offer by just sitting around the room. They make him feel safe, even when he closes his eyes and hears the distinct ring of a gunshot. And a lot of pain.

 

Tatara opens his eyes slowly, curled up on his side next to Mikoto, nose buried in the Red King's right shoulder. Mikoto's right hand is resting against his stomach while his left hand is behind his head. The King's eyes are closed, as if he's sleeping, but Tatara knew better. He could hear the television across the room is on, and some animated show is on, something that Anna likes to watch, and the rest of the guys are watching with her, some quiet laughing and joking.

The brown haired young man looks around a bit, not realizing that he had fallen asleep. He closes his eyes, wanting to go back to sleep but feeling uncomfortable and has to shift, even if it's only a bit. But he has to move, just a bit. He presses a little bit closer to Mikoto, trying to absorb his warmth. Normally he'd try and have some class but he was exhausted and freezing. There is so many people in this room that they must have turned up the air conditioning so that it wasn't so hot. Tatara doesn't mind, but he's so cold and the blankets around him were paper thin.

Tatara opens his eyes and looks around the room as far as he can without moving any of his body. Anna is sitting on Izumo's lap, enraptured by the show, ignoring the little jabs from the other Homra members about the things the heroine and her gang were doing. Her large red eyes were focused on the screen, wide and innocent. In her little hands, four marbles are rolled around slowly, as if preoccupying her fingers rather than any intent to use them.

Izumo was leaning back in the chair, looking down at his phone, cigarette left unlit hanging from his lips. Yata was sitting at the edge of the bed, legs dangling over the side, elbow on his knee and chin resting on his palm.

But that was pretty much all he could see. He blinks slowly, letting out a long yawn, shifting a bit closer to Mikoto before letting his eyes slip closed and he slipped back into slumber, trying to ignore the light throbbing in his gut.

A knock on the door makes Tatara, who just fell back to sleep, jolt back into awareness. He looks around, eyes blurry and brain frazzled. It's so cold, all he wants to do is curl around the heater he affectionately calls a King and sleep forever. But the fates aren't so kind and Mikoto's sleep, however light, has already been disturbed. Narrow golden eyes look lazily around the room as if unsure of what disturbed his rest.

Everyone is looking at the door as if it were a foreign object none of them knew what to do with, or even if they heard what they thought they heard. Anna slowly pulls her eyes away from her show and tilts her head to the side.

"Someone's at the door," she says in her soft voice.

"Who, though?" Yata asks, thin red eyebrow raised.

"Should we ignore it?" Kamamoto asks, looking back and forth at the other members of the red clan.

"That's stupid, fat ass!" Yata snaps.

"Down, Chihuahua," Eric mutters in English, then, in Japanese, "It's obvious that there is people in here, so it's pointless to pretend that there isn't." As if to prove his point, there is another knock at the door.

"Should I get it?" Fujishima asks, standing up from the floor somewhere at the side of the bed, closest to the door.

"Might as well," Izumo sighs, putting his phone into his pocket and leaning forward a bit. He puts an arm around Anna's waist so she doesn't fall off his lap when he shifts upright a bit more.

Fujishima dusts off the back of his pants and walks toward the door in time for their to be another knock. There is the sound of the door opening and soft voices. Shohei, who was sitting on the far side of the couch away from the bed, leans even further over the arm of the couch to see if he can see whoever it is at the door past Fujishima but settles back into his seat with a shrug and a sigh.

"Izumo," Fujishima calls out. "Um, I think..." He steps back into sight and looks slightly sheepish.

"Police are here," Anna says as soon as two detectives step into view.

"Forgive us for the intrusion," the older of the two says, dark eyes scanning the room, taking in all of the shady looking characters, all glaring unhappily at the intrusion. It obvious from their expressions that the two police officers were unwelcome.

The older one was probably in his fifties with a thick mustache, narrow dark eyes and years of hard living written across his face. He looked like all the stereotypical detectives that Tatara has seen in the old movies he used to binge watch a few years ago. Just one of the many hobbies he had under his belt. Just seeing this man made him want to dust off those old movies and watch them all again.

The other detective was a younger man, probably in his late twenties, if not early thirties. He may be young but his brown eyes, lighter than the older man's, were focused and keen. And his eyes found Tatara immediately and locked onto him.

"I'm Toka Yashiro and this is my partner Toshimi Hayate," the older man says, making a half-hearted gesture toward his partner who tips his head a bit in greeting, but his eyes were still locked on Tatara curled up against Mikoto's side.

"Hello there," Izumo says smoothly, diplomatically, standing up easily, arm still wrapped around Anna's waist. He sets her down on the bed next to Yata and the red haired man pulls her closer to him protectively. He shakes both of their hands before placing his hands on his hips. "I'm Kusanagi Izumo and these are my friends." He gestures to the unmoving, unspeaking remainder of Homra before looking back at the older cop. "Is there something we can help you with?"

"We're here to talk to a Totsuka Tatara about what happened December 7th just before midnight," the older cop says, pulling out small notepad to scribble something down. "If we could just have a few moments..."

"As you can see," Izumo says smoothly, "Tatara isn't exactly up to snuff yet and is real tired. He's a long couple of days. He doesn't want to file a police report."

"I am sympathetic to his situation," the older man says, not at all swayed by Izumo's charms, "but I think we'll ask him for that."

"He's tired," Yata says, glaring. "Leave him alone."

Anna raises a red marble to her eye and stares at the two men, eyebrows pulling together in concentration. "He knows who we are," she says softly. "He's met Mikoto before."

Izumo glances over Mikoto, who was staring blankly a the older cop, not an ounce of recognition in his eyes. That doesn't surprise Izumo, not a lot of people make an impression on the red king. But he does sit up, rubbing the back of his messy red hair and stares blankly at the old detective, who appeared surprised by Anna's words but didn't know how she knew such a thing.

Tatara misses the warmth but knew his King and fellow clansmen would make things difficult for the cops, even though they were just doing their jobs. He manages to put his left hand under himself up slowly, hissing at the pain in his stomach. It didn't hurt nearly this bad earlier. He must have slept through his latest morphine shot.

"Izumo is right, sirs," Tatara says, smiling thinly, obviously forced. "I don't want to get a police report. I'm sorry you had to take the time to come out here."

"You won't file a report?" The younger detective asks incredulously, brown eyes wide. "Someone shot you, point blank. According to your medical report, if the wound hadn't been cauterized, then you would have died."

Tatara knew that he was saying all of that in an attempt to try and get the thin brown haired man to cooperate with the police, but all it served to do with make the air in the room tense. No doubt the older members had the thought cross their minds, but hearing a cop - quoting from a medical professional - just how close they were to losing him.

Even Tatara had to shutter a bit at his own mortality. But he wasn't going to think about that. He wasn't going to let the fear and worry cloud his mind. Not now. Not surrounded by his family and the people he loved. He could sink into his own emotional turmoil when he was alone. He always wanted to move into the Homra bar with Izumo, Anna and Mikoto, he practically spent all of his time there anyway, but he didn't want to inconvenience them anymore than usual.

Tatara isn't naïve. He knows he's probably the most useless one of them, his power isn't strong and he's sure not a strain, but everyone is kind enough to never say a thing about it. Because they love watch other and are family.

But now Tatara is glad that he lives alone. He doesn't have to worry about who's watching.

"I understand," Tatara says softly, grimacing in pain as he sits up before reaching up and combing his fingers through his hair. "But I'm okay. I've got my family with me." He smiles a bit. "Thank you, though."

"Are you certain?" Detective Toshimi asks, eyebrows pulled together. "This is your life we are talking about? Won't you at least give us a description of the person who hurt you?"

Tatara blinks a few times, not knowing what to say. He looks down at the thin comforter that's meant to keep him warm and picks at a loose thread. "I... don't really know what to say?"

"How can you not know?" Toshimi asks.

"Hey, shut up!" Yata snaps. "If he doesn't want to say anything than he doesn't have to."

"Seriously," Kamamoto says, eyebrows pulling together a bit. "He doesn't want to say anything." A few of the other Homra members throw in their two sense. Bando and Shohei even stand up, which makes the two detectives nervous, as if they were suddenly under attack. If the older detective knows Mikoto, then there is a very good chance he knows a bit about Homra. Tatara looks around, asking everyone to calm down but their voices are so much louder than his and his head is starting to hurt.

"Come on guys," Shohei says, looking around at the other Homra members. "They are just police officers..."

"So what?" Chitose grumbles. "I know you're about to say: they're doing their jobs, but you know that causes nothing but troubles."

"Don't say it like that..." Fujishima says slowly, glancing over at the detectives' backs.

"Seriously, idiot, do you want to make them suspicious unnecessarily?" Izumo snaps.

"Too late for that," Kamamoto mutters.

"They're afraid we will attack them," Anna says, still staring at the detective through her red marble.

Yata growls. "It's cause you think we're delinquents, isn't it? Pretentious assholes!"

"We aren't exactly giving them a different impression-" Shohei tries to say. Eric mutters something in English that Tatara couldn't quite catch. There was a word in there that he knew shouldn't be repeated in front of Anna.

"Shut up, Shohei!" Bando snaps. "They formed their opinion of us, the moment they saw us, and the King."

"Come on, guys," Tatara says, sitting up painfully slow and holding his hands up. "There is no need to be so antagonistic. Fujishima is right, they are just doing their jobs. No harm, no foul."

"You're too nice, Tatara," Yata snaps, looking at the thin brown haired man from over his shoulder. "That's what got you shot."

Tatara's entire body goes rigid. His already pale face draining of what little color remains. Yata's face is suddenly stricken with remorse and he immediately is stammering out apologies when Mikoto, who had been watch the exchange between the uneasy cops and Homra with a lazy, uninterested face, was staring at Tatara now with his eyebrows pulled together.

"Enough," Mikoto says calmly, but his voice is strong and it makes the entire room fall silent. Mikoto's lazy sharp golden eyes run over the Homra members. All of them quiet down and bow their heads a bit in submission of their King. Once everyone is quiet and focused on him, he says, "Tatara is sick and doesn't need to deal with this right now." His eyes drag over to the two detectives. "We won't be needing any help you have to offer. Besides," a coy smile crosses his lips, "we aren't part of your jurisdiction."

The younger detective opens his mouth, probably about to ask what he meant by that when Fujishima says, "Blues are here."

"Late as always, cold-hearted woman," Izumo says, leaning against the wall next to him and crossing his arms over his chest.

"I wish you would stop calling me that," Seri says, glaring at him for a split second before turning her attention to the two officers who look like trapped mice in a lions den. She stops herself from looking over at the looming presence of the Red King. "Detectives, my apologies for you being misinformed, but these" her eyes flicker over to the Homra members for just a slit second before returning to the two law enforcement, "citizens are under the jurisdiction of Scepter 4." She holds up a badge.

The older detective takes the badge and studies it. Anna leans back, sticking the marbles in her pocket and scoots over to Mikoto, glancing up at him with big red eyes. He looks down at her mutely, blinking a few times before sighing and standing up, opening to space to Tatara's side. He rolls his shoulders back, then stretches, filling the now quiet room with the cracks rolling up his spine. Anna scoots over to Tatara and leans into him a bit when he puts an arm around her shoulders. She was warm under his arm and he leans into her a bit more.

"I will show you two out," Seri says, taking her badge back, sending an uneasy glance over toward Mikoto, but easily schools her features. She turns on her heel and waves for them to follow her. The older detective lets out a sigh and obeys while the younger one turns to look at Tatara, opening his mouth - probably to insist that he just cooperate - but when he notices Mikoto staring at him with dangerous golden eyes, he backs down and leaves the room.

"Mr. Totsuka?" Ayona asks, flying into the room. "Your heart rate is elevated. Are you alright?"

Now that she mentions it, his heart was racing, but more than that, he was light headed. But he didn't want to cause a problem so he smiles thinly and nods. "I'm alright. Just a bit of excitement, is all."

Ayona looks wearily around the room, shrinking a little away from Mikoto, but says to Tatara, "I...I see. B-but Mr. Totsuka, you should really reframe from any excitement. You lost a lot of blood when you were shot and even more in surgery. You're going to be feeling strange for a while not to mention lightheaded. So please," she looks around nervously at the other Homra members, "can we keep the excitement down to a minimum? At least for a few days?"

"Yes ma'am," the Homra members chime in. Shohei and Bando both saluting to her.

Ayona sags a bit in relief that they weren't angry. She turns to Tatara. "Alright, since I'm here, how about I change your bandages now? Could everyone step out for just a moment?"

All the Homra members look at Mikoto, who's scratching at the back of his head and his stomach, lazily. He drops his arms and picks up his jacket, throwing it on and digging out a cigarette, sticking it into his mouth and walking out. Izumo shrugs his shoulders and holds a hand out for Anna to take. She does and he pulls her off the bed, against Tatara's silent wishes to keep the warm little girl close, and walks from the room with Anna close behind. The rest of Homra follow after, giving little waves to Tatara and promises to be right back and to call them if he needs them.

Ayona chats, more to fill the silence rather than saying anything particularly important, while pulling off Tatara's shirt and carefully unraveling his bandages. Tatara closes his eyes and listens to the soft tones of her voice for a moment before she pauses, making Tatara open his eyes a little bit.

"What's this tattoo on your left shoulder blade?" Ayona asks. "Oh! I mean, if you don't mind me asking."

Tatara smiles. "It's a symbol of the unity we all share."

Ayona hums softly. "It's pretty and red, and almost looks like it's glowing. It's really nice." Another pause, then, "So, those people were your friends..?" It wasn't a judgment, just curiosity.

"No," Tatara says, closing his eyes again. "Not really."

"Oh!" Ayona says surprised. Her hands removing the wrapping around his chest and stomach pause. "I'm... I'm sorry. I just thought..." She sounds uncertain.

Tatara laughs softly, looking over his thin shoulder at the girl, eyes twinkling. "They aren't my friends, Ayona-san. They are my family. That's why I told you not to worry about Mikoto. He may seem scary, but he's really kind. He's our King, after all."

Ayona looks taken back by the gentle look on the pale young man's face. "King..." she repeats. "I remember you calling him that before..."

"He is," Tatara says. "Where he is our King, there must always be an heir. That cute little girl? Her name is Anna. She is our princess. We are one big family. All of us. These tattoos that brand us, along with our loyalty to our King and Princess, makes us all family."

Ayona smiles. "That sounds so lovely." Her eyes flicker over to the trashcan in the corner. "That's a lot of red wrapping. Do you like the color red?"

Tatara looks forward, closing his eyes again. He doesn't want to see the blood on the wrapping as her hands start moving again. "I do. But they are from gifts to Anna."

"The Princess?" Ayona says. Tatara nods, lowering his arms a bit. He had been holding them up to keep them out of Ayona's way as she removes his bandages but his arms are getting tired.

"Yeah, but it's also the only color that she can see, so I would suspect she likes it," Tatara says, more to himself than Ayona.

"Wow," Ayona says. She pulls the last of the wrapping away from Tatara's body and steps away for a moment to grab a rag and towel. She tenderly cleans around the stitches and pat dries on both sides of his body. The bullet must have gone through him. Now that the bandages are off, Tatara realized how difficult it was to breath. Not overly so, just a tightness of the chest he always attributed to the bandages being a little tight.

"What about the rest of you?" She asks suddenly.

Tatara opens his eyes, staring at the white wall across him, Anna's show is still playing. He can barely hear the heroine trying to rally her friends. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"You have a King and a Princess. What are the rest of you?" Ayona asks.

"Hm," Tatara says thoughtfully. "Loving vassals. Dedicated to the King and Princess." He lets out a little laugh but the quick expansion of his chest made it hurt and he flinched.

"I see," Ayona says, sounding slightly intrigued. She reapplies the bandages and then stands up, helping Tatara put his shirt back on. Once she's done she asks if he needed anything - he didn't - and then she left, promising to let the rest of Homra know they could come back in and see him.

Dewa was the first to come in. He tips his head a bit at the petite brunette and then plops down on the couch.

"How are you feeling, Tatara?" Dewa asks, propping his head up on one fist.

"I'm alright," Tatara says, smiling. "Where is everyone?"

"Lolly-gagging out in the hall, mostly," Dewa says. "Except Anna, Izumo and Mikoto. Izumo and Mikoto are outside smoking and Anna is following Mikoto around. Yata and Kamamoto went down a floor to get some snacks. Sorry for you, looks like we are going to be sticking around for a while." Dewa smiles and lets out a little laugh.

Tatara leans back into the uncomfortable bed a bit. "Not really. I'm happy that everyone is here with me. I'd be lonely without you all." He meant it to be playful, but the ring of truth hung in the air between them. Dewa stares at Tatara, playful smile slipping away to make room for a somber look. "I'm sorry," Tatara says, letting out a little laugh. It sounded a bit strained. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Right," Dewa says, then glances over at the door as if to make sure no one was coming in yet before he says, quietly, "We'll find the guy who did this, Tatara. We aren't going to leave you. I promise."

Tatara smile is soft, sad. "I know. That's what family is about."

Dewa nods, and then opens his mouth, probably to try and offer up something more to make Tatara feel better but ends up saying nothing as Chitose, Shohei and Bando come walking in, laughing about something. Yata and Kamamoto come in a minute later arguing about something else while both carrying arms full of snacks and other goodies.

"Uh, here," Yata says, putting a water bottle down on the table next to Tatara. He quickly glances around to see if anyone was listening in on their conversation, but the other four men were talking to each other so he turns back to Tatara, but avoids eye contact, a blush dancing across his cheeks as he says, quietly, "I'm... uh, sorry about what I said before. That was uncalled for..."

"It's alright," Tatara says, smiling lightly. "I'm not mad." Which isn't a lie. He wasn't mad by what Yata said. In some ways, it wasn't untrue. If Tatara was a bit more cautious of people then perhaps warning bells would have gone off in his head when he saw the Colorless King laughing like a maniac while overlooking the city, but there was nothing. He didn't sense any danger or anything. Tatara just thought that he was enjoying the nice view too.

Tatara didn't have any self preservation instincts. Like, at all. It's probably why he gets beat up all the time. He just... didn't see it coming. He didn't expect that he would be shot. That he would almost die. And on Anna's birthday too. More than dying, Tatara regrets almost doing it on Anna's birthday. The little girl meant so much to him he almost couldn't bare being a source of unhappiness in his precious Princess's life. If he had died on her birthday, it would forever be a black stain on her life.

She already had such a tough life, especially for someone so young, she didn't deserve that marring the one day a year meant to be all about her. He's not sure how, but he'll come up with a way to make it up to her. He will. And in order to do that, he's got to get better.

"Can I ask a favor of you, Yata?" Tatara asks.

Yata blinks in surprise before nodding. "Sure. What's up?"

"Can you dig around in my bag that Izumo brought for me? See if there is a sweater or something in there for me?"

Yata nods, bounding over to the bags on the floor, digging around in the bags until he stands tall, tilting his head to the side. "Um, I don't think there is one in here, Tatara," Yata says, glancing over at the pale brunette. "Um, sorry."

Tatara shakes his head. "No, it's alright." There is a moment of hesitation before Yata unwraps the red sweatshirt from around his waist and offers it to Tatara. Tatara stares at the sweat shirt as if it was a foreign object, before glancing back up at Yata. "Are you sure?"

Yata looks away, blushing. "Yeah, go ahead."

Tatara takes it, sitting up slowly and slipping it on over his shoulders. He leans back into the bed, relishing in the warmth and smiles foundly. "Thank you, Yata."

Yata turns away, rubbing the back of his head. "No problem. J-Just get better soon, alright, Tatara?"

Tatara smiles sleepily. "Right. I will."


	4. Where they are

Tatara spent the rest of the day sleeping. He vaguely heard the rest of Homra leave. They were kind enough to whisper their goodbyes as to not startle the lethargic young man still slipping in and out of slumber. He mumbled incoherently after them, eyes blurry when he opened them, but quickly turned onto his side and snuggled into the warmth of the King next to him. He tried not to invade the King's space too much, but Mikoto didn't seem to mind. Or, if he did, he didn't say anything. Which served both of them fine.

Izumo must have left too. Tatara was happy about that. The bar had been closed for too long as it is, it needed to be opened again. Tatara's not sure what time they went home, but he hoped that it was in time to open Homra. It sucked to hear but that bar was their livelihood. In most ways, it was a home for most of them and just a place to hang out otherwise.

Tatara wanted to insist that the King go too, but he didn't have the strength. He was tired all the time and cold more often than not, and in the back of his mind he didn't want Mikoto to go anywhere. Mikoto was warm and strong and smelled of cigarettes and whatever faint cologne he put on. His breaths were deep and even and there was just something about his presence that was comforting and relaxing.

Tatara felt safe. Safe with his King.

That night, Tatara curled close to his King, trying to absorb more of his warmth. Now that the room was empty and the air conditioning was blasting, Tatara felt like he was in an icebox. His shaking must have awakened the King for he shifts onto his side toward Tatara muttering a light, "lean up, Tatara," into the darkness. Tatara, groggy and shaky, obeys. He pushes himself up a bit on his elbow, enough for Mikoto's arm to slip under him before he lays down again. Tatara's head rests on Mikoto's right arm as his right arm pushes Tatara close to him, resting hesitantly over Tatara's ribs.

The pressure isn't anything unbearable, but the warmth is perfect. Tatara could snuggle into Mikoto's warmth forever. He can understand Anna's constant desire to snuggle with Mikoto. Their King was certainly very comfortably. But Tatara can get that. His King's power wasn't meant to hurt people. It was meant to protect. Tatara believed that whole-heartedly.

Under his breath, Mikoto was muttering something about a "bunch of idiots shouldn't turn up the air conditioning and then leave" but Tatara had to smile at the plain fact that Mikoto was too lazy to get up and turn it off himself despite complaining about it. Tatara didn't mind either. So long as he was warm, and close to his King, then he felt safe. Their king really was made for protecting.

Anna was living proof of that. Children were very keen about the intensions of people. Anna sticks around Mikoto all the time because she trusts him and feels safe around him.

"King," Tatara says softly into the dark night air.

"Hm?" Mikoto hums, just above him. His deep breaths tickle the top of Tatara's head.

"Thank you for saving me," Tatara says softly, forcing himself to open his eyes to see the dark outline of Mikoto's prominent collarbones.

Mikoto didn't say anything at first, just close his arms around Tatara a bit more. Tatara's eyes start to slip closed again as slumber threatened to take him again, when Mikoto finally says, "Yata was cruel in what he said. But he wasn't wrong."

Tatara opens his eyes and looks up into Mikoto's bright golden eyes. "King..?"

"You are kind, Tatara. And naïve. It's what gets you hurt. You don't think." His words are colder than the air around them.

"I know," Tatara says, closing his eyes. "I... I almost gave Anna another bad memory..."

"No," Mikoto says so sharply that Tatara had to look up at him in shock. "No, this isn't just about Anna. This is about all of us. Anna is young. She would bounce back eventually. It's not the same with the rest of us. Yata couldn't stop crying while you were in surgery."

Tatara is speechless. "I... I didn't know."

Mikoto's eyes narrow dangerously, his aura floating around him menacing. Anyone else would be terrified of the Red King and his renowned bad temper, but not Tatara. He wasn't afraid of Mikoto. There was a connection there. They were friends. Deeper than that. Tatara always knew Mikoto was destined for great things, and even if the Red King never ended up meeting those expectations, Tatara would never willingly leave his side.

Forever and ever, Tatara would be loyal to Mikoto.

It's just... surprising that Mikoto was so angered by Tatara getting hurt. Logically, he was one of Mikoto's clansmen, therefore one of his responsibilities, but it was still a shock to him. It shouldn't though, Tatara supposes, since Mikoto always got angry at him whenever he put his life in danger.

"Maybe this will open your eyes," Mikoto says sternly, sounding very out of character. "Finally start putting some value in your own life." With that, Mikoto has said his peace and closes his eyes. Tatara stares at him quietly for a few moments before whispering a quiet apology and closing his eyes too.

The next morning, Tatara felt stronger. More clear headed. He was still in pain, but it was something that he could ignore. As expected, Homra was back as soon as visiting hours started, all refreshed and ready to laze around a hospital room again that day. Instead of movies this time, there was a lot of board games and card games. They all gathered around Tatara's bed and played games into the afternoon.

Mikoto and Izumo would both step out every couple of hours to smoke, and Izumo was making a lot of phone calls but was tight-lipped about what he were talking about and with whom. It was about half passed twelve when Izumo got another call. He stood up, about to step out of the room again when he paused. All of Homra, including Anna and Mikoto, who were sitting at one of the chairs next to Tatara's bed.

Anna was sitting on Mikoto's lap, a hand full of cards, trying to put the cards in order for when it's her turn in Uno. Mikoto has his five cards in his right hand, lazily spread out, half looking at them with disinterest. He was humoring them by playing. He didn't look amused by any of it, but it was still a nice gesture. He tilts his head to the side and looks up at Izumo, watching the other man pace back and forth making humming noises at whomever he was talking to on the phone with sharp golden eyes.

"Thanks," Izumo says, coolly. "I owe you one. Uh huh. Later." He hangs up the phone and looks down at Mikoto. "Let's step outside for a moment, okay? I need a word with you."

Mikoto grunts and stands up, wrapping an arm around Anna's waist to keep her from falling, before setting the pale girl onto his seat and handing her his cards before throwing on his jacket and grabbing out a cigarette and sticking it between his lips.

"Mikoto..." Anna calls out to the King softly, after a moment of looking over his cards. "All your cards are +4 cards..."

Yata, who's turn is after Mikoto's, or now Anna's, pales at that. "What? Boss!"

Mikoto pauses at the door, Izumo half a step behind him. Mikoto looks down at Anna, as if contemplating something. His golden eyes bounce between Anna and Yata before he hums softly, reaching up to pluck the cigarette out of his mouth before saying, in a smooth, low voice, "Kill him, Anna" and smirking before leaving, ignoring Yata's indignant whine that follows.

Izumo shakes his head, smiling a bit before making to follow, only to stop and look over at a smiling Tatara. "Do you need anything?"

"No, thank you," Tatara says.

"Okay," Izumo says, waving his hand around and throwing on his own jacket, closing the door behind him. The room is quiet for a moment, everyone just staring at their cards.

Kamamoto is the one that breaks the silence, looking around the room through his shades. "What do you think they are going to talk about?"

"I wonder..." Tatara says, looking toward the hall leading to the door. He adjusts himself a bit in his bed and glances out the window for a moment. It was a nice clear day and the sun was shining brightly. The clouds were thin and the sky was so blue. It was a wonderful day to be alive. Tatara was so happy to be alive right now, to be able to see this day. To be able to see all of Homra. To be here with them. Or most of them.

Except Izumo is planning something behind his back. Tatara isn't naïve. He can see a scheme forming when it's happening right in front of him. He knows Izumo and Mikoto well enough to know that when they step out to have smoke breaks, they do so to talk about things in private without the entire rest of the Homra being around so that they can just talk through all the facts without worrying about what the younger kids think.

But they are also excluding Tatara too, which means it's about him. And that could only mean one thing: they are looking for the young man who tried to murder him. The Colorless King.

 

Someone lightly touches Tatara's cheek, caressing it so softly, Tatara thought he was just imagining it. But then his sixth sense kicked in and he felt someone leaning over him. The only person in Homra that would mindlessly touch him like that would only be Anna, but the hand touching Tatara's cheek was far too big to be little Anna's hand. But there wasn't anyone else that Tatara could think of in Homra that would do that.

Maybe it's not someone in Homra that's doing this, the evil little voice in the back of Tatara's mind whispers, making him jump, eyes shooting open and scanning the hospital room. It was empty. There wasn't anyone around who could have been touching him. Tatara relaxes into his uncomfortable bed and lets out a deep whoosh of breath, flinching a bit at the pull on his stitches that does to him before something pulls his attention to the stand next to his bed, by his forgotten camera. There was a small white piece of paper, folded in half.

Tatara sits up a bit and picks it up.

Do you know where they are right now? it reads. And then a location.

Tatara's eyebrows pull together in confusion before he feels around the bed for his phone. He had it with him before he fell asleep. When was that again? It was still afternoon so it couldn't have been that long ago. Where did his friends go? Tatara sits up a bit and gives another good, clear look around the room to see that it is in fact empty. Tatara is alone.

Tatara looks down at the location scribbled onto the piece of paper, while his hand mindlessly fumbles around his bed for his phone. It runs across the device and he pulls it up to his face, quickly typing in the location to see what type of place it is.

His eyebrow quirks, wondering why they would need to go to a place such as this? Did this building somehow connect with the Colorless King? This horrible feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. Tatara quickly typed in the number he memorized by heart years ago and brings the phone to his ear, jiggling his legs under the covers, hoping that Homra will just walk into the room and assuage his fears any moment now.

By the fourth ring, Tatara closed his phone and looked around the room again, anxiously. He didn't know what they were doing at this place, but if it had something to do with him, and they got hurt? He would never forgive himself. If something were to happen to them - any of them! - Tatara's not sure what he would do. Not sure if there's anything he can do.

It was silly to think that what the Colorless King had done to him would end at that. Of course they would go through the camera Tatara couldn't bring himself to look at, while he was asleep, or even before he woke up originally. Of course they would hunt him. For Tatara - for any of Homra - they would protect each other from anything.

Tatara throws the covers away and pulls the IVs from his body smoothly. He stands easily enough, probably having just got a shot of morphine into his system to numb him to the pain. He locates some bandages and wraps up his arm from the needles. Then he shimmies out of his pants - after quickly making sure that the door leading into his room was closed - and slipped on some pants, having to sit down on the bed because he couldn't bend well at the waist. But he had to move quick. Who knew how long it would take for someone to come check on him? He had to get moving.

He pulled off his shirt, throwing it into his bag before digging out one of this white button ups. He buttons it up, leaving the top two buttons undone before sitting down on the bed and pulling on socks and shoes. He quickly walks over to the door and opens it, peaking into the hall to see that the nurse's station was empty, and turned away, fast walking down the hall toward some elevators. He gets onto the elevator and hits the button for the lobby and leans against the side of the elevator, looking down at his phone.

He has to build up as much strength as he can. It'll be a long walk. He closes his eyes and hopes that he will have the strength to make it to them. Is this a bad idea? Yeah, probably. Should he just sit back and wait for them to come back? Sure. But after last night, Tatara got the impression that this was going to be a repeat of what happened when he was in middle school.

He was beaten up, bad, and sent to the hospital. Mikoto then went and beat up the high-schoolers that did that hurt him and got expelled. Mikoto never really explained why he did that. In some ways, Tatara chalked it up to Mikoto just being the protective man he thought he was. But, somewhere in the back of his mind, Tatara was also keenly aware that he wasn't like that with anyone else really. Any of the other Homra members gets beat up, he would go after the person who did it, whiled backed up by the rest of Homra. Because theyw ere all in it together.

But, in the back of his mind, he knew it was different with himself. He didn't know why though. When something happened to him, Mikoto would stew in his anger, before he disappeared and let out his rage on those that caused Tatara harm. Over the years, Mikoto had grown good at stewing. He would almost appear relaxed, angry, but dealing. And then, like a rubber band, he would snap and his destructive powers would be released.

The elevator dings and the door opens up for him. Tatara walks toward the lobby, as casually as possible, he even goes so far as to casually wave at the receptionist. She waves back, half-heartedly, distracted by what she was looking at on the computer in front of her.

Once Tatara has escaped the hospital, he turns his attention toward his phone, making sure he's heading in the right direction before steeling himself, praying that he'll never see the Colorless King again, and goes.

 

Tatara looks up at the building in front of him with trepidation. As he grew closer to this place, he's gotten nervous. What if this is some kind of trap? He's not sure how, considering he's been with Homra since the moment he's been in the hospital, but still he's worried. What if the Colorless King is really here? One hit in the gut and he's probably dead. There's no way he's physically strong enough to fight anyone - not like he was in any better condition before he was shot. Well, no, for as frail and dainty as the brunette was, he was durable. He was built tough.

Tatara had tried to call all of Homra, yet none of them answered. They must all be together doing something for them not to answer. Tatara takes a step up the stairs in front of him, leading into the building, only to pause, feeling Mikoto's power, intermixing with the rest of Homra, in front of him. Mikoto's damaged, weathered looking Sword of Damocles appears in the sky above the building. They were there!

But, why would they be flexing their powers unless-

Tatara sprints up the remaining steps and throw the doors into the main lobby open, looking frantically for the white haired, manically laughing Colorless King battling his friends. His family.

When Tatara's shoes slap against the lobby floor, eyes scanning the room, he wasn't sure what exactly to expect when he got there. But seeing Homra piled up behind Mikoto like a true force behind it's King, and the Blue, lined up with their swords drawn behind the Blue King with the two Kings having a stand off, was the last thing he expected. This wasn't between the Reds and Blues. This was about the Reds and the Colorless King.

Tatara feels light headed and weak, as a blast of red and blue aura slips past him, shaking the foundation of the building. This was definitely a bad idea, coming here, but at least they weren't duking it out with the Colorless King. At least Scepter 4 was law abiding and noble, even if to a fault. As much as Tatara's fellow Homra members couldn't stand the Blues, Tatara didn't actually mind them. They were kind of a nusance in a way, but they do work hard to keep peace and for the most part pick and choose their battles with Homra.

And the Blues aren't nearly as terrible under Reisi Munakata.

Tatara wasn't going to go and start waving the Blue's flag anytime soon, but he didn't believe them to be the scum of the earth the rest of Homra, with the exception of Izumo and Mikoto, seem to think. Tatara didn't even really think there was any actual hate for the Blue, other than loathing through principal, there wasn't much issue with the Blues until Anna, and after that was settled, then so was the real rage. But after that was the incident with Fushimi leaving Homra fro the Blues.

If Tatara had to guess, that was were the most rage came from. What happened with Anna was horrible and never to have been forgiven, but Fushimi was one of them. He was a part of Homra and Yata's best friend for a long time. And suddenly the blue haired man just threw all of them away, like they all meant nothing to him.

Tatara was honestly hurt by Fushimi's betrayal, but not nearly as much as Yata was. Tatara could understand such a thing and while he was angry for what happened, he also knew that he couldn't hate Fushimi. There was too many people already that hated him and no one really knew the reason why he left them in the first place. Tatara knew that Yata and the rest of Homra needed someone who wouldn't necessarily stand up for Fushimi and his actions, but someone who wouldn't add fuel to the flames of hatred.

In some ways it was hard to tell how both Mikoto and Izumo really felt about Fushimi betraying. They would both stare at each other or at Homra with unreadable looks on their faces as they listened, but they would never voice their opinions. And if either are directly asked, Mikoto would grunt and take a deep drag of his cigarette and Izumo would dismiss their words with narrowed eyes.

Tatara never asked them what they really thought.

It has always been different with the three of them. They were the originals. They were the ones that came before Homra. There was a bond there that wasn't quite there with everyone else. Homra was close, very close, but there was just something about the history between Izumo, Mikoto and Tatara that felt different than what they shared with the rest of Homra.

And yet, for some reason Tatara never felt like he could ask. While there was a different kind of bond between the three of them, there was an even more different, and powerful, bond between Izumo and Mikoto. They were both older than Tatara, they were in high school when he was in middle school, and had many more years together than Tatara did with them.

Tatara knew. Izumo's best friend was always Mikoto. And Mikoto's was always Izumo. Tatara wasn't jealous of their relationship in the slightest, though. In fact, if anything, he knew deep down that they were perfect together. They were meant to be best friends. He could just tell by the way they stared at one another whilst others spoke. How little words needed to pass between them in order for them to communicate.

Izumo was Mikoto's best friend and his second in command. He was the perfect person for both positions.

But, Tatara digresses. His mind wonders as he tries to understand what was happening in front of him. Why was Homra going against Scepter 4? What was this place?

"King!" Tatara calls out, slowly walking across the lobby toward the members of Homra. Both Homra and Scepter 4 members look over at Tatara, surprised.

"Tatara!" Izumo snaps, head twisting toward the dainty brunette. "What the hell are you doing out of the hospital?"

Mikoto tilts his head to the side, the smirk that was on his face earlier fades. He blinks a few times as if unable to believe what he was seeing. Once he realized it was Tatara - shot-just-a-few-days-ago-and-almost-died Tatara - really was walking toward him, he lets out a long winded sigh and runs his calloused fingers through messy, wild red hair.

"Why are we fighting the Blues?" Tatara asks as soon as Yata gets to him. Yata wraps his arm around Tatara's waist to hold the pale young man up, which Tatara was thankful for. Tatara felt like he is going to pass out. This really was a bad idea.

"We aren't fighting the Blues," Yata says, looking up at Tatara face twisted in worry. "We're taking care of business and they are interfering."

Tatara relaxes a little bit. As a side job, they bounty hunt, and clean up the streets. They are here for that and not the Colorless King? That is a breath of fresh air. Tatara could skip back to the hospital with how happy that made him.

"I see..." Tatara says softly. "This has nothing to do with my attacker..?"

Yata blinks up at him a few times. "What do you mean, Tatara?"

"Don't do it, Yata!" Izumo snaps, cutting him off, but it's too late. Yata's words slip out.

"This is the asshole that sold him the gun he used to shoot you," Yata finishes, before his eyes widen in realization. "Ah, no! I mean... Uh, no! I..." He looks over at Homra like a deer caught in the headlights. Reisi tilts his head a bit, intrigued.

"Dumbass Chihuahua," Eric says, shaking his head.

Yata flushed deeply in embarrassment. He looks over at Mikoto, who sighed again, before saying to Izumo, "Um, sorry." Tatara rubs his forehead in distress. This isn't what he wanted. But that'll have to wait. Tatara's sure everyone will have some things to say.

"Dumbass is right," Izumo mutters angrily. "And you!" He looks over at Tatara, "I asked again: what the hell are you doing out of the hospital? You were just shot for God's sake!"

Tatara blinks a few times, his head is heavy and his mind is jumbled. "I... I..." he recalls the note. Logically, there was only one person - group, he supposes - that would have left him that. He looks over at Reisi. "Um, thank you for the note. I'll bring them back with me..."

Reisi's eyes flash curiously and a smile curves over his lips. "I see. Thank you." His second looks at him in confusion, her eyebrows pulled together tightly. Mikoto stares at him with molten golden eyes, obviously unhappy about whatever was going on between them.

"Can we go back now..?" Tatara asks Mikoto. "I'm sure we'll have much to talk about later but..."

Mikoto, who was now in a stare down with Reisi, doesn't respond right away. Very slowly, he pulls his eyes away and turns toward Tatara, nodding. "Yeah," he says, then makes his way over to Tatara. For a moment, in Tatara's befuddled mind, he wondered if Mikoto was going to hit him. It wouldn't surprise him. Mikoto was a little rough around the edges, but was overall kind. And angry, right now. But he hides it well under boredom. But even Tatara could tell. Mikoto's golden eyes are burning in anger. Whatever he came here for, or whatever he thinks is going on between Tatara and Reisi, he's angry about it.

But Mikoto doesn't hit Tatara. He just picks Tatara up smoothly and keeps going. Tatara is in pain, and light headed. But he's safe, with Homra. With Mikoto.

Homra follows after Mikoto loyally, while the Blue stay behind and watch them go. Reisi sheaths his sabre and cups his chin with his left hand and holds his left elbow with his right hand, looking intrigued.

"Captain?" Seri says, looking at the blue king with her thin eyebrows pulled together.

"This has gotten interesting," the spectacled King says, smiling. "What is your next move, Suoh?"


	5. Desire for Normality

Tatara stares at Mikoto and Izumo, who stare back at him with unreadable looks on their faces. Tatara relaxes back into his hospital bed, staring at the two older men with an unreadable look at his face. He could tell that they were both really angry with him, but neither said anything to him. They just awkwardly stared at him and he stared back, not knowing if he should be the one to say something first or not.

Tatara finally manages to pull his eyes away from Mikoto and Izumo to look down at the newly attached IVs with a disinterested frown. He didn't want to be here anymore. He didn't want to be doted on by nurses who didn't even realize that he was gone nor did he want to be stared at like he was water slipping through their fingers. Like he could up and vanish at any given moment.

He didn't like that. He didn't like them looking at him like he was a leaf, delicate, easily broken, and easy to slip away from them at the slightest shift in the breeze. He didn't like that. He knew that he wasn't as cautious when it came to his life as maybe he should be, but it was because at the end of the day... maybe Tatara's life didn't mean all that much to him.

It was a horrible realization to suddenly have. But now that he thought about it, he couldn't really deny the truthful ring the horrible thought left in the back of his skull. It made sense. Why else would he care so little? A part of it could just be attributed to thoughtlessness. He didn't want to die. He wanted to live, that was irrefutable, but it didn't mean he saw much value in his own life. There was nothing about him that was extraordinary in the slightest. Anything that would be worth being proud of, or protective over.

The only thing in Tatara's life that had any value whatsoever was his friends in Homra. His clan. To him, they were the world. They were the only things he had that meant anything. He loved them. But for some reason, in the back of his mind, he didn't understand why they got so upset over him. He didn't do much to contribute to the group. If anything, he was more of a burden or hindrance on them than anything. Even little Princess Anna was more powerful and useful than he was.

But this wasn't a pity party. It was merely fact.

Tatara was an orphan. For as long as he can remember, he's been alone. He was a trouble magnet, which now isn't such a bad thing since it was such a thing that brought him and his King together, but he wasn't particularly talented with anything and interest varied and only lasted for so long before he was moving on to the next thing. He really wasn't doing anything with his life. He couldn't even say he was living life to the fullest either. He was... just there, most of the time. Little purpose and reasoning. He was just there.

As Tatara was dying, after having been shot by the Colorless King, he didn't see his life flash before his eyes. He just... thought about losing everyone and the pain. His life was nothing spectacular to think back at.

But now staring at the angry faces of Mikoto and Izumo, with the rest of their friends and fellow clansmen waiting out in the hall per their king's orders, Tatara could only rationalize that they were all seeing something in him that he couldn't see in himself.

Tatara love them, he really did. The fact that they all love him in return, made him so happy, beyond understanding. He didn't think that his life was unimportant to his friends. He knew that they love him, it's just... when it comes to them and him, he doesn't know how to put his life first. Somewhere in the back of his mind, while he was laying on that roof, bleeding to death, he was beyond happy that he didn't ask anyone to come with him. It was okay that it was just him. It was okay if he was the only one that died. So long as everyone else is okay. Then... then it's okay somehow.

He knew such thoughts would anger the rest of Homra, but he couldn't help but think about it. Thankfully, his thoughts were safe in his head. No one ever has to know about that, unless he told them.

"I don't want anyone to get hurt," Tatara says, finally, after a long stretch of silence. Izumo and Mikoto's eyes land on him. "Not because of me," Tatara says softly, shaking his head. "I just can't do it."

Izumo lets out a long winded sigh. He runs his fingers through tousled blond hair, fingers twitching, as if looking for a cigarette without actually looking for a cigarette. He shakes his head before looking into Tatara's eyes. "I get that," he finally says. "You've never asked for help from anyone if they could get hurt from it and you always discourage anyone from going out of their way for you, but... come on, Tatara, doesn't that tired you? Aren't you done getting the shit kicked out of you or getting hurt because people are all assholes?"

Tatara shook his head. "No," he says, honestly, "I never thought about that before."

Izumo groans, throwing his head back and interlacing his fingers behind his neck. "Of course you haven't. Why am I surprised? I shouldn't be! But for some reason I am!" He sighs.

Mikoto sighs too, crossing his arms over his chest. The leather of his jacket crinkles.

Tatara shrinks a bit in his bed. He's tired and worried and scared. Today has been a long day. He's just ready to go to sleep and wake up tomorrow for a new day and maybe find out when he's getting out of this place. The doctors have already informed him that his healing is amazing. That he should be leaving the hospital sooner than expected.

Tatara knew it wasn't natural healing that got him this far. It was the mark on his shoulder. Being one of the red's clansmen has given him a heightened healing ability that he so desperately needs. It's nothing super enhanced, but enough to be noticed. Slightly. Tatara didn't know enough about the healing body to know just how long it will be before he's healed, but he's been told he's healing quickly.

It's nothing too dramatic. He's still in so much pain and relies heavily on drugs, but it supposedly explains how he was able to make the trek to that illegal black market gun dealer's building that his friends had hunted down earlier that day.

"I don't want to hunt the Colorless King," Tatara says softly, letting his shoulders slump. "I just want to forget all of this."

"Tatara..." Izumo sighs, running his hand through his hair. He looked like he was losing the strength to keep arguing this point. Thankfully for him, and not Tatara, Mikoto was not.

The Red King walks over to the bed and sits down by Tatara's side, turning his back on Izumo to focus on the dainty brunette. His golden eyes stare into Tatara's light brown ones for a long moment, taking a moment to collect his thoughts before letting out a soft sigh. "You don't get that choice, Tatara," he says simply. "No matter what you want, the Colorless King is a problem that must be dealt with."

Tatara's eyebrows pull together and he frowns unhappily by that. "Why..?"

Mikoto stares intently into Tatara's eyes. "He knew you were a Red Clan member. It wasn't an accident that he shot you. He knew, and planned it."

"He couldn't have," Tatara says softly, shaking his head. "Going up to the roof that night was just a spur of the moment thing. There's no way he could have known that I would go up there..."

Mikoto nods slowly. "Perhaps," he agrees, "but that doesn't mean that you weren't the perfect victim of opportunity."

Tatara shakes his head. "I don't get it. How could he have known I was a Red Clansmen?"

"Perhaps not a Red Clansmen, but one of us." His eyes roll around lazily, as if that was the vague gesture for all those who were kings and clansmen without having to actually move his hands. Lazy lion. At Tatara's confused look, Mikoto sighs and says, softly, "We can just sense it."

Tatara was impressed by that, but didn't know if that was an avenue that he was allowed to proceed down just yet. Much of who and what they - and 'they' is a varied term for Kings, Clansmen, Strain and everything else that falls into that category - is still so new to them. There is secrets locked away in every nook and cranny that is... well, them. There was still so much that all of them don't know about everything.

But Tatara was tired, and unhappy. He wasn't even sure, if he had asked, if Mikoto would even know the answers to any of these questions. Mikoto was like a wild animal. He went off of instinct for pretty much everything. It's how he's spent his entire life up to this point. Yes, he is a logical thinker, obviously. People think that he's just some thug who's lazy and stares off into the distance a lot and doesn't appear to be listening half the time. But that's not true. Mikoto is actually really smart.

He doesn't care to show it, but Tatara has seen him watching the rest of Homra playing trivia games. Mikoto never said much, usually just opted to listen, but there was times when no one would know the answer, and Izumo would grin over at Mikoto and ask him the question. Mikoto would just blink a few times, usually with a cigarette hanging from his lips lit or not, and mumble the answer.

He was always right.

There is a strange silence that settles over the three eldest members of Homra. They each just sat or stood around the room and kept quiet. At first the silence was strange, but now it's slowly turning relaxing and with the hum of the room's air conditioner filling the room was enough to start easing him to sleep. Tatara has been doing an awful lot of that lately and can't say he's too upset. Sleeping is a good hobby to have.

"I think this conversation is over for now," Izumo says, his voice breaking the silence.

Tatara's eyes, which had drooped closed at some point, open again. Mikoto is staring at him with a completely relaxed expression on his face for a moment longer, before looking over his shoulder at Izumo.

"Ah," he says, standing up and pulling his jacket off. Izumo nods and turns around heading for the door.

"I'm going to send the others in and take Yata and Chitose with me to go get lunch. Anything you want in particular, Mikoto?" He peaks his head around the corner to look back at them. "Tatara?"

"I don't care," Mikoto says, dropping into the seat next to Tatara's bed. Mikoto could eat practically anything.

"Let's do a vote," Tatara says, smiling. He forces himself to sit up a bit. As much as sleep sounded lovely, he's quickly coming to learn that so much is happening under his nose and that's because he's been sleeping through it. It's hard for him to get up and chase after them when they run out and scheme while their smoking, but while it was happening in the room, he could stop it.

Izumo nods and steps out, speaking to the rest of Homra for a moment, before everyone piles in. They all decide on their food and Izumo pulls Chitose and Yata out with him to get the food. Ignoring their complaints. Anna crawls up onto Tatara's side to lay with him while everyone else just sits around the room. Everyone is talking about one thing or another, Tatara is only half listening.

Anna looks up at Tatara, he can see her in the corner of his eye. "Are you mad at us, Tatara?"

"For going to that gun dealer?" Tatara asks. Anna nods slowly. Tatara shakes his head. "No... I'm not mad. I'm just... I just have mixed feelings, is all. I know what you are all doing, but I still don't know how I should feel about this. I just... don't know. But I'm not mad. That's what I know for certain."

Anna studies his expression closely with large red eyes before deciding that he was being truthful and rests her head back on his shoulder. She was so little and warm and fit perfectly in his arms, that he began to fall asleep again. Perhaps it was because he used a lot of his energy heading to that building, but he fell asleep easily snuggled up next to Homra's Princess.

 

"What did you get from Munakata?"

Mikoto's voice broke the comfortable silence that settled over Homra as they munched on the pizza brought back to them by Izumo, Chitose and Yata. The occasional attempt at a conversation or jab about this or that falls silent as everyone looks over at their king.

Tatara, who didn't have an appetite and was content with watching everyone else eat, glances over at Mikoto with innocent brown eyes. "What, King?" He asks, after almost fifteen seconds of the two staring at one another. "What about the Blue King?"

Mikoto tilts his head to the side, the two long strands of red hair in front of his face slide away, golden eyes staring back at Tatara. "Back at the hotel. You thanked Munakata for telling you something? Or giving you something? What was it?"

Tatara's eyes widen. "Oh! You're right." He turns and digs around the bed covers, trying to find that slip of paper. "I have it... somewhere... he left me a note while I slept... um, where is it..?" His hand slides over it. He grabs the piece of paper and holds it out for Mikoto to take. He does and opens up the crinkled slip. His strange golden eyes scan the paper before handing it to Izumo.

"It doesn't say who it's from," Mikoto says. "How do you know it was from Munakata?"

Tatara shrugs. "I just figured, out of all the people that was there, he's the only one who would have said anything. What, do you think I'm wrong?" His voice was even, he was merely curious, but Mikoto's eyes narrowed dangerously.

Tatara didn't understand what suddenly got Mikoto on edge, but Shohei did. With a piece of pepperoni pizza inches from his mouth, his eyes widen and he murmured, "Someone else got in here..." Bando chokes on his bite. The other members of Homra look horrified. They start sharing looks and twitching anxiously, as if whomever snuck in - and that term is being used loosely - could still be around there somewhere.

"Shit, Mikoto, what should we do?" Bando asks, using the back of his left hand to push up his shades.

Mikoto frowns, crossing his arms over his chest, plate of pizza perched on his knee. Izumo shakes his head, stepping forward from where he was leaning against the nearby wall. He waves his hand around as he speaks, the paper fluttering with the movement. "Wait a second, guys. There is no need to get all excited about this. We have no idea who this was and if they were even a threat."

That settles everyone down a bit.

"It couldn't have been the Blue King," Kamamoto says, shifting slightly in his seat. "I mean, there's no way he could have figured out where we were, came here to leave the note to Tatara and then make it back to the hotel in time to face us. I mean, unless he can teleport. I don't think that he could have done that. Am I wrong in assuming that?" He looks around at everyone in the room, shrugging heavier set shoulders.

That quieted the room as everyone thought about that.

"If it wasn't the Blue King..." Anna says slowly, "then who?"

Fujishima, who has been quiet the entire time, finally speaks, softly, "Fushimi?"

Yata's face twists into a nasty snarl. "Damn it all!" Now that Tatara thought about it, he didn't see the once red-clan-turned-blue-clan boy with them. Wisely, Munakata must have told Fushimi to stay away. He probably wanted to settle the issue with the Reds as peacefully and orderly as possible and having Fushimi there would have added unneeded resentment and anger.

Fushimi, huh?

"Now that you mention it..." Tatara says softly, recalling something, "I felt a man's hand touching my face before I woke up. But... why would Fushimi do that?"

No one has an answer for that. They all just look around the room at one another, wondering if someone would have any ideas. But no one did. Instead, Chitose says, "Do you think that Tatara will be able to return home soon? I mean, I know this is a hospital and not the mayor's house, but it's too easy for someone to get to him. Especially a King."

That hung in the air again.

"Let's not worry about that now," Tatara finally says, pulling everyone's eyes to him. He smiles. "Everything will work out in the end. Just be patient. Besides, we need to start moving forward with our lives. The world doesn't revolve around me. You all have to start focusing back on your own lives again."

"What are you talking about, Tatara?" Bando asks, tilting his head to the side. Shohei, who was right next to him, frowns unhappily, eyebrows pulling together. Anna didn't appear to like them all talking so loudly over one another that she pulls out her red marbles and holds them up, looking around the room through them, seeing colors.

"Exactly as I said," Tatara says kindly, "you all have to start going back to school, starting tomorrow."

As soon as the words left Tatara's lips, the room fills with noise, everyone, excluding Tatara, Anna, Izumo and Mikoto, started talking over one another. Yata even jumps to his feet, face twisted into a displeased frown. He's definitely not going to go back without a fight.

Tatara has always known that Yata is a lot more sensitive than he would like to admit. Tatara knows that Yata loves everyone in Homra like they were his family. It was just Yata and his mother and she's almost never home. For so long, all he had was Fushimi, now he has everyone else in Homra. He doesn't want anything to happen to his friends. His family.

It wasn't until after he was hospitalized that he has come to realize how much he fits into that bubble of love. Mikoto said that Yata was crying while he was in surgery. Tatara saw Yata crying over him as he was bleeding out on that rooftop. The things that Yata says to him, while crass at times, is also proof of how much he feels. Yata is brash and doesn't really know how to deal with people, often losing his foot only to later find it in his mouth, but he cares a lot. Even now, Yata doesn't care about his education. He wants to be with Tatara, to protect him.

Yata is very precious.

"You guys," Tatara says softly, shaking his head. "You guys, you have to go back to school. You all can't just hang around my hospital room. I'll be okay. Besides, it is our responsibility to keep the streets safe, we can't do that all piled up in this room. The clan is family, but in order to support the family, you have to go to work and go to school. Please."

"No way," Yata says, shaking his head, eyes narrowed. "Now way, Tatara, we have to look out for you. Who knows if the Colorless King will come back?"

"That shot was almost fatal," Tatara says. His words were even, meant to be matter-of-fact, but Homra, collectively flinches. He quickly moves on, realizing his mistake. "There is a very good chance that the Colorless King thinks that I'm dead... and... and that he won't come back."

Izumo jolts, as if that made him suddenly think about something. Anna brings her marble between herself and Izumo, tilting her head to the side, staring at Izumo. He stares back at her, shaking his head slightly when her lips part, as if to ask something. Her lips close and she lowers the marble to her lap, blinking large red eyes up at Izumo innocently.

At some point during the conversation, Mikoto slipped a cigarette between his lips. He didn't light it but it seemed to relax him by it being there.

"I don't give a shit," Yata snaps, glaring at Tatara. "Whether that's true or not is irrelevant. You won't be hidden from the world for long. Who's to say that he won't come looking once he finds out? Mikoto's right, he knew that you were a clansmen, maybe not from the Red Clan, but still. He wanted to start shit with somebody, and if he wasn't intending for it to be us, it doesn't matter. He fucked up either way."

"I understand," Tatara says slowly, frowning, "but you have to keep moving forward with your life too. One day the Colorless King will be stopped, until then, focus on school. You owe it to yourself, Yata. You are very smart, you can make something of yourself."

Yata is shaking his head. "Come on! This isn't about me! This isn't about school! You just can't grasp the seriousness of the situation, Tatara! You would be dead right now if Mikoto hadn't of been there! Dead, Tatara! There is no coming back from that!" His voice is rising in pitch, growing hysterical. "Why the hell don't you care? I can't believe you even thought the possibility of us going back to the mundane parts of our lives was... was..." he waves his hands around, not able to find the words.

"Yata," Tatara says softly, keeping his voice low and smooth, hoping it'll calm the carrot top, "I understand. I do. And I do care. I just... I don't want anyone getting hurt because of me. Whether it be physically, mentally, or even future-wise. We'll always be a family, but schooling and jobs and connections outside of us is important too. I just don't want you to skip out on something that is also important."

Yata is still shaking his head. "Your life is more important than me not going to school for a few days, Tatara."

Tatara stares back at him. The room is deathly silent. Tatara knew that in some ways, they all felt that way. It made him happy that they love him enough to want to protect him, but he always wanted to protect them too.

"Maybe," Tatara says, "but my life isn't worth your future." Yata stares back at him, eyes wide, mouth opening and closing, like he didn't know how to put his thoughts into words.

"Okay," Kamamoto says slowly, holding his hands up hoping it would somehow ease the tension building in the room. "I think that maybe we should all take a step back and turn the conversation elsewhere." He takes a moment to think of where to take it. "Um, maybe... uh, how about..." he squints, not sure where to turn the conversation.

"Tatara is right," Izumo says. Yata's mouth opens, about to protest but Izumo holds up a hand to stop him. "Tomorrow, we'll start trying to scrap our lives together again. Go to school and work tomorrow, everyone. Come back here once you're finished." His voice was even and firm, leaving no room to argue. Tatara smiles up at him a bit, happy that the oldest of them was on his side. Izumo nods a bit down at him before leaning back against the wall again.

The younger members of Homra, especially Yata, look like they want to argue about this more, but obey the second-in-command.

Eric, who was quiet the entire time, looks over at Fujishima, who was closest to the pizza, asks, "Can you hand me another slice?"

 

Tatara is standing up on that roof, staring down at the city lights beneath him. He can feel the familiar weight of the camera in his hand. He holds it out over the railing and letting the camera lens slowly scan the city below. Anna is going to love this! It truly looks like thousands of candles flickering just for her. Tatara can't wait to see her face.

He is so happy, grinning ear to ear, that he fails to feel the cold fingers of fear begin to crawl up his spine. When he finally does feel it, his entire body is paralyzed in fear. He can feel something at his back, yet he's too terrified to turn, yet he knows that he has to. There is something in the pit of his stomach that tells him no matter what he wanted he was going to turn around.

Every fiber of Tatara's being did not want to do that, but for some reason, he had to. And he did. Turning slowly, he saw, standing where he should have been, the Colorless King. He was half obscured in darkness. But there is no doubt that it is him, staring back at Tatara with large, red eyes. His face is twisted in a crazed, half smile, shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

Tatara's blood runs cold. The camera in his right hand slips and falls from his grip, hitting the ground hard and cracking.

"No..." Tatara says slowly, holding his hands up. "N-No, please..." His hands, held in front of his face, is shaking almost as much as his voice. "I... I don't want any trouble."

Somehow, the wicked grin on the Colorless King's face stretches wider, making Tatara's knees clack together and a bead of sweat slide down between his shoulder blades. There is a roar in his ear by his blood, so loud, he almost misses the Colorless King's words, "Beautiful night out, isn't it?"

"No..." Tatara says, shaking his head, tears blurring his vision slightly. "No, please..."

The Colorless King whips out his gun, pointing it at Tatara and suddenly they are both in their right spots. The Colorless King is standing by the railing and Tatara is by the stairs leading up to the roof. This isn't what he wanted. He shouldn't be here. He had to get away. He had to run. But his legs won't move. He's stuck in place, and he's going to die, for real this time.

"Please," Tatara begs, not knowing what else to do. "Please, please don't do this!"

The Colorless King's smile is cruel. His manic laughter fills Tatara's ears and there is a bright flash of light and the loud bang before Tatara is crying out, hands flailing around in the air, as if somehow able to knock the bullet away from his body without hurting himself.

"No! No, please!" Tatara yells, hands swinging around for the bullet when something wraps around them. Tatara panics, wondering where the darkness in his vision came from and tries to pull his hands away from whatever was holding him, "Please! Please! Please!"

Red appears in the darkness, two red orbs staring back at him. It was too pure of red to be the eyes of his almost murderer. The red begins to outline the entirety of the body of man in front of him. As soon as that happens, Tatara begins to relax.

"King..." Tatara whispers, shaking uncontrollably. His eyes start darting around the room, realizing that he was still in the hospital and that it's dark out. But still, in all of the shadows of the room, the Colorless King could be hiding. The heart monitor next to him is going off the charts, and it's that noise that pulls him out of the panic that has gripped his mind.

"You're safe," Mikoto says, voice low and even. "It's just you and me now."

Mikoto lays down and pulls Tatara down after him onto his chest, wrapping his arms around Tatara's thin, shaking body. His aura wraps around them and Tatara's trembling begins to subside. Tatara's forehead is pressed against Mikoto's neck, absorbing his warmth. He shifts a bit within Mikoto's tight grip before settling into a comfortable position before he stops moving.

He opens his eyes slightly. "King...?" he rasps.

"Ah?"

"I am so... so..." he closes his eyes, feeling his wet lashes brush against Mikoto's neck. "Scared," he whispers as loud as he dares.

Mikoto's grip tightens around him. "Sleep," Mikoto says. "We can decide what to do with everything as it comes along. The Colorless King is a real threat, but he isn't here. Sleep. No one can get to you when I'm here."

Never feeling so raw and afraid, Tatara scoots closer, hoping to somehow mold into Mikoto's being and stay there, where he is safe. Mikoto would protect him, Tatara truly believed that. Tatara would soon come to learn that there was very little that Mikoto wouldn't do for him.


	6. Water

"Please," the nurse says, holding her hands up. "Please, Mr. Totsuka, please don't go! You really should stay until your wounds fully heal! Mr. Touska, we must insist!"

Tatara shakes his head, frowning deeply. "No, I can't stay anymore. I just want to go home."

"But you aren't fully healed, yet," the nurse says, eyebrows pulled together tightly. She looks around at the rest of Homra, as if one of them will be able to help her out, but all of them have their heads bowed. No one else says anything. Tatara is too riled up right now for anyone to really say anything at the moment. Tatara is a kind man and soft spoken at heart, but when he gets like this, no one wants to stand up to him. Even Mikoto and Izumo stand by the wall, backs pressed against it. Mikoto has his arms crossed over his chest with his head tilted down. Izumo was just staring at the dainty brunette, frowning.

Tatara stands by his bedside, putting his clothes into his back pack, still frowning. He pauses all movement, heart pounding in his chest. He holds still for a moment, trying to reign in both his anger and his erratic heart beat. He's trying to leave here, the last thing he wants to do is give them more reason to try and deny him his desire. He just can't stay here anymore. He has to get out.

Not that they would hesitate in denying him. They seem very uninterested in what he wants.

The nurse looks around helplessly, trying to think of what to do, before giving up and rushing from the room. Izumo steps out of the way, watching her go for a moment before sighing and looking over at Mikoto, pressing his lips together. Everyone else stands around the room, looking at the floor as Tatara starts to shuffle about again, still visibly unhappy.

Anna, who was sitting on the bed, watching him moving back and forth around the room, finally calls out, softly, to the dainty brunette, "Tatara...?"

Tatara pauses, glancing over at Anna with a tired sigh. "I'm okay, Anna."

"Do... Do you want to want some help, Tatara..?" Shohei asks softly, eyes wide. He shifts slightly, next to Bando, who nods quickly, eager to help. To somehow get back into the dainty brunette's good graces once more. Tatara turns a deep frown toward them. They both freeze when his brown eyes turn to them, face paling a bit at his expression. Shohei holds his hands up slowly, looking worried. "Uhh, Tatara?"

"I'm not talking to you guys, not right now," Tatara says simply, still frowning at them. "Not after what you did."

Shohei, Bando and Dewa, who was right next to Bando, all wilt like flowers under a hailstorm. They look to one another helplessly, not knowing what else to do. They knew what they did was wrong, but they had to do it. In some ways, Tatara's anger is understandable, but at the same time, it's not. They were doing this for him. They were trying to protect him. Why couldn't he be okay with that? Why did he have to get so mad?

"Tatara," Izumo sighs, running is hand through his hair, "come on, don't do this. You need to stay here until you are completely healed."

"No," Tatara says, shaking his head. "I'm going home."

Izumo rolls his shoulders back and stares at him, exasperatedly, like he was dealing with a child. "Don't be like that, Tatara. Come on, you are hurt! Just sit back down. I'll go tell the nurses that they don't need to discharge you."

"I can't stay here anymore. You put that video up on the internet of me getting shot, Izumo," Tatara snaps, eyes narrowing. "You've shown the whole world me getting hurt! I was going to die, Izumo! And you just showed it to the world!"

Izumo stares at him with narrow hazel eyes. "Why the hell are you being so difficult? That doesn't mean anything! No one knows that you're dead or alive! Besides, this will help us find the Colorless King quicker! Don't you want to feel safe again?"

"I'll never feel safe again!" Tatara says loudly, hands flying out at his sides, staring at Izumo with wide brown eyes. "Don't you get that? Please! Please stop pursuing this! I don't want to know! I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me!"

"We aren't going to get hurt," Eric says, speaking up for the first time since Tatara called Izumo in a fit of anger, after seeing his video being spread across the internet with an obscene amount of money placed as the bounty. By that time, most of the Homra members had been filtering into the room after school and their supposed failure trying to catch the Colorless King the first time they saw him, earlier in the day.

"You don't know that," Tatara says. "Just let it go. It'll all work out in the end. There's no need to try and force it one way or the other."

"Do nothing?" Bando asks, shaking his head. That was probably the craziest thing Tatara has ever said. And he's practically famous for all of the silly things that he's said. Especially to Homra.

"That's not going to happen," Chitose says, crossing is arms over his chest. "Sorry, Tatara, but no way."

Tatara's shoulders droop and he looks over at Chitose and smiles thinly. "I know, but still. I just... I'm done with this hospital. I'm done sleeping all day and watching myself being shot over and over again on the news. I don't want to do it anymore. Can I just go home so that I don't have to keep torturing myself with my thoughts and with my reality? Can't that be okay?"

No one says anything for a long time. No one knowing what to say. But it's finally Fujishima who speaks, voice soft and low, "But you are going to be in so much pain."

Tatara looks over at the overly quiet member of Homra. "I'll be okay," he says. "I will definitely not like it, but the pain will remind me that I'm alive. That I could have lost it all. But I didn't. I'm still here."

Anna reaches out and takes Tatara's hand in hers. "Tatara, are you in pain?"

Tatara glances down at Anna, his eyebrows pulled together slightly. "No, princess. I'm okay."

Anna frowns a bit. "I don't believe you..."

Tatara lets out a little sigh, kissing the top of Anna's head. As he straightens up, he feels a sharp pain shoot up his side and his vision turns black for a moment. Thankfully, he lowers his hands onto the stiff bed instead of collapse onto the floor like he thought that he was going to.

"Tatara!" Yata yells, jumping to his feet and placing his hands onto Tatara's back. "Are you okay? You need to sit down."

Tatara doesn't have the strength to fight it. He sits down at the edge of the bed. He places his hand at his side and takes a slow breath. He can't really think because everyone is talking to him at once. They crowd close, everyone is talking.

"Do I need to get the nurse?" Izumo asks. "Yo, everyone, shut up!" The room falls quiet, everyone takes a few steps back. "Do I need to get the nurse?" He asks again.

"No," Tatara says, shaking his head slowly. "I don't want a nurse."

Tatara squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, waiting for the pain to subside. Someone touches the hand he has over his side. Tatara opens his eyes slowly to see Mikoto knelt down on his hunches in front of him.

"Lemme see," he says.

Tatara leans back a bit and lifts his shirt slowly, showing the crisp white bandages wrapped around his mid-section. Mikoto inspects the bandages for a moment to see if he can see any signs of his stitches opening, but thankfully there's nothing.

"Get the nurse," Mikoto says.

"King," Tatara sighs, rubbing his forehead, dropping his shirt. "Please don't do this."

Mikoto stands up, putting a hand onto Tatara's head. "You aren't leaving. Not yet. Just a few more days."

Tatara lets out a little sigh, bowing his head but looks into Mikoto's golden eyes. He's always thought that those eyes were beautiful. There were usually so lazy and unreadable, but at this moment they were so intent and focused on Tatara that the man couldn't even begin to question his orders - even if he wanted to. It just wasn't going to happen. Very rarely did Mikoto really put his foot down about things, but because this was Tatara they're talking about, his luck would have this be the case.

"Tatara," Mikoto says, his voice low and gravelly.

"Yes, King?" Tatara sighs, looking down into those golden eyes.

"Stay here for a few more days," Mikoto says again. "And then we can all go home."

Tatara looks at him for a long moment, trying to decide if he has enough strength to fight this or not, but then he lets out a little sigh, he brings his hand up, curling it into a fist. Mikoto holds up his hand for Tatara to plant his fist into the center of his palm, Mikoto's fingers curl around Tatara's fist a bit.

"Please, I can't deal with this much longer, King," Tatara says softly. "I just want to go home. I want to go back to Homra."

Mikoto nods. "Just a few more days. Heal up a bit more, then we can all go home."

"Do you promise?" Tatara asks.

"Ah," Mikoto says, blinking slowly.

Tatara sighs for the thousandth time, his shoulders drooping in defeat. "Okay, fine. But just for a few more days."

Mikoto nods, glancing over at Shohei. "Tell the nurse."

Shohei, along with everyone else, is grinning broadly at him. He nods quickly and runs out of the room with a hearty, "Yes, boss!"

"I'm sorry, King," Tatara says, letting his large brown eyes slip closed. "I don't know what's gotten into me. I am so anxious all the time, I feel like. I'm really sorry, again."

Mikoto shakes his head, standing up slowly. He goes to walk around the bed, heading toward the door while pulling a cigarette out and sticking it between his lips, pausing in his journey only to pat Anna on the head, before heading out. Izumo spares a glance Tatara's way, as if he wanted to say something, before he thinks better of it and walks out the door.

Tatara crawls into bed and lays down on his side, suddenly exhausted from all of the excitement and having pulled something in his side. It doesn't so much as hurt any more, but it's a heavy throbbing that he just needs to curl up on his side and ignore for a little while until it eases. The nurse comes in, happy, and reattaches all of the IVs.

"Tatara?" Yata says softly, somewhere at Tatara's back.

"Hm?" Tatara says, waiting for the medication to kick in.

"I'm sorry that we did that to you..." Yata says softly, sounding remorseful.

Tatara rolls onto his back and looks over at Yata. He does look genuinely unhappy about what he did. Tatara can appreciate that, at least. He doesn't actually want Yata to feel bad, or any of them. Now that he's calmed down, he can think a bit more rationally. He knows that they care for him, and he appreciates that more than anything, but he still kind of wished that they wouldn't have gone that far.

He didn't want anyone to make a big stink over this. He wanted it handled quietly and preferably not by his friends - that way they wouldn't get hurt - and they could just continue protecting people rather than seeking revenge. He could understand hurting people - bad people - in order to protect good people. While he doesn't necessarily like it, he understands it.

But Tatara is fine. He's alive. This is just about revenge. Tatara just wasn't about that and it breaks his heart that they just couldn't let it go like he wanted. But he doesn't have the strength to keep fighting. He's ready for this all to be done.

His doctor come sin a little while later to see if his stomach was okay, he pulled back the wrapping to look at his stomach, check for any strange discoloration and gave it a few pokes. Tatara didn't talk throughout the entire check-up, stuck in his own head.

He was so mad. Livid, even, by what his friends had done. He could understand why they did it and he loved that they cared so much for him but Tatara would never be able to forgive himself if something were to happen to one of his friends all because they were hunting the person that hurt him. Being on the brink of death terrified Tatara to no end, and he wished to never experience it like that again, but if his friends continued to pursue this, he feared that this would be another scare, but for one of his other friends.

Tatara is so scared that something will happen to his friends. They meant everything to him. All Tatara's life he's been treated like he wasn't wanted and wasn't important until he met Izumo and Mikoto. They were the ones that made him feel like he was important. They made him feel like he was really someone. They made him feel... feel...

Like he existed. Like he was real.

Tatara was abandoned as a baby in the park by his parents, then he was picked up by a nice couple only for his new mother to leave them with his alcoholic father, who ended up never even wanting him. For as long as he can remember, he's always been unhappy. Everyone would look at him as if he was made of glass, easy to see right through.

His father called him cold hearted and for a long time, Tatara wondered if perhaps he was telling the truth. For what felt like forever, Tatara didn't know how to feel at all. All he could think about for most of his life was how no one wanted him. It was like everyone wanted nothing to do with him like he didn't exist at all. His own father would rather not even look at him if he had the option. There was nothing about Tatara that was anything special but he always wished that he could be somehow, while also wishing that he couldn't.

For a dark time in Tatara's life, he wanted nothing more than to actually disappear like people always viewed him. He wanted to disappear from himself as much as with others. In school, at home, no one knew him or saw him. He didn't exist. He wasn't a person. He wasn't anything.

And then he met Mikoto and Izumo.

It wasn't anything special that Tatara ran into Mikoto or Izumo, they were just sitting outside the back of the high school smoking as he walked by. He walked past the back of the high school every single day on his way home from middle school and never once ran into them until that day. At first, Tatara thought nothing of the older boys who just sat there quietly smoking until another group of boys walked past him, knocking his books out of his hands before continuing on like nothing happened, laughing with one another.

Oh, well, he existed when someone wanted to pick on him. Tatara didn't mind, though, at least people saw him then.

Tatara stops, letting out a little sigh before lowering down onto his knees and starts to pick up the books on the ground. He reaches up with his left hand and tucks a few strands of thin brown hair behind his ear before someone kneels down in front of him. Tatara blinks in confusion as someone holds out one of his books to him. Tatara raises his eyes to look at the high-schooler in front of him.

His cold, unhappy brown eyes locked with the warmest, purest golden eyes that Tatara had ever seen. No one had ever been this close to him before. In the older boy's golden eyes, Tatara saw himself.

"You okay?" the boy, Tatara later learn was Mikoto, asked.

"Yes..." Tatara had said and from that moment onward, Tatara was enraptured by the older boy. Mikoto Suoh was an enigma. Mikoto suoh was unlike anyone else in the entire world. He didn't just see Tatara. He could see Tatara.

Mikoto saved Tatara's life. Mikoto didn't know it, but for as long as he could remember, Tatara has loved Mikoto. Mikoto was his hero, his rock, the only person in the world who would always see him. That is, until he really met Izumo and then the rest of Homra. Now while it may not just be Mikoto that can see him, Mikoto will always be the first and Tatara will never, and has never, forgotten that.

"King?" Tatara asks, as the last of Homra piled out of the room to head home for the night. Izumo took Anna with him.

"Ah?" Mikoto says, unzipping his jacket from the last time he stepped out to smoke with Izumo. He rolls his shoulders back before turning around to look at Tatara with those very same intense golden eyes that Tatara has seen hundreds of times and is still mesmerized by.

"Don't you want to go home? I mean, I don't really want to be alone, but I don't want to keep you here. It must be really uncomfortable trying to squeeze into this little bed with me..." Tatara says softly.

Mikoto tilts his head to the side. "Do you want me to leave?" He blinks slowly, golden eyes warm and soft.

Tatara hesitates for a moment before offering a tiny, bashful smile. "No," he admits. "I'm glad that you are here. Thank you, King."

Mikoto nods his head slowly, kicking his boots off smoothly before sitting down onto the bed, turning to look at Tatara with narrow golden eyes. He scans his body for a moment before asking, quietly, "Are you in pain, Tatara?"

Tatara shakes his head. "No, I'm fine. How do you feel, King? Tired?"

Mikoto blinks a few times slowly, looking around the room as if the answer was floating around his head. Then, he yawns, finding the answer himself. Tatara couldn't help but laugh. That was such a silly question. Mikoto really only had two moods: tired and hungry. If he wasn't one, he was usually the other. But asking made Tatara feel a bit better somehow.

"Thank you for staying with me all this time, King," Tatara says softly, reaching out and pulling at the loose threads of the white covers around him. He could feel the heat pooling up in his cheeks. Even though he was a lot more open than most of the other members of Homra, he wasn't exactly that open. He was always weak in comparison to everyone else in Homra, but it was a vulnerability that wasn't usually addressed. It was something that everyone knew but wasn't usually said out loud much.

"You are welcome," Mikoto says, looking at Tatara through hooded golden eyes. He looks around the room for a moment, looking as if he wanted to say something but didn't know how to say it or at least how to start. Mikoto wasn't a man of many words and usually let his presence speak for him, but it seemed like there was something that he wanted to say himself.

Tatara waits in silence, allowing his longtime friend and King a moment to collect his thoughts in peace.

Mikoto looks over at Tatara. "I need you."

Tatara's light brown eyes widen significantly. His heart beat picking up. He had not expected such an admission. The words coming from anyone is flattering, but coming from Mikoto, it's something else entirely. Mikoto was strong - one of the strongest, if not the strongest, people that he has ever had the privilege of meeting - so him saying that he needed Tatara was something that Tatara never thought that he would ever hear in his entire life from the normally stoic man.

Tatara tilts his head tot he side, trying not to anger the man next to him.

"What?"

Mikoto frowns at him. "I need you," he says again.

"Uh," Tatara says softly, looking around the room for a moment before looking over at Mikoto, blushing. "Thank you, King?" Mikoto stares at him blandly, looking like whatever moment they were sharing was being ruined. Quickly trying to rectify that, Tatara asks, "But why?"

Mikoto stares for a moment, the crease that had formed between his eyebrows fades away as he thinks about that himself. It takes Tatara a second to realize that maybe Mikoto didn't have the answer to that. For some reason - and not something that Tatara can comprehend! - Mikoto felt that he needed Tatara, but didn't actually psycho-analyze himself enough to be able to understand why.

Mikoto was a real deep thinker, but wasn't one that expressed it much.

"Never mind," Tatara says, shaking his head, offering a little smile. "Thank you so much for saying that, King. Are you ready for bed?"

Mikoto hums quietly, laying down next to him slowly. Tatara hesitates for a split second before curling around up onto Mikoto's side. His mind raced for a few minutes before he finally got himself to push the thoughts away and start to fall asleep. He was almost asleep, listening to Mikoto breath slowly and deeply. It was a relaxing sound, easy to sooth him into slumber.

"You are my light," Mikoto says softly into the dark room.

Tatara opens his eyes blearily. "Huh? What?"

"I need you because you are my light," Mikoto says. "You're that crazy little voice in the back of my head trying to guide me down one path or another." His voice is soft, almost as if he spoke too loud he would ruin the moment.

Tatara looks up at Mikoto, seeing golden eyes reflecting the moon light, stare down at him. This overwhelming feeling bubbles up in his belly. He didn't know what to really think about that. Mikoto's words were heavily loaded, bearing a weight that Tatara didn't even know was possible for his King. As smart as Mikoto was, in some ways, he ignored his own brilliance for laziness.

Mikoto's admittance is something that really threw Tatara off kilter. It could mean so many different things, yet Tatara's not sure he's smart enough to know what any of them could have been. Tatara isn't as smart as Mikoto, and he wouldn't want to speculate and get the wrong idea.

"I'm your light?" Tatara asks softly. He leans back a bit to be able to see Mikoto well.

Mikoto nods. "For as long as I've known you. You need to value your life more, Tatara. You are important to us all."

Tatara blinks slowly, knowing just by looking up into his King's eyes, that he was telling the truth. Even Tatara was smart enough to know that he was important with his friends, but just hearing his long time - and possibly best friend - say that about him was really an eye opener. Tatara knew that he was important to his friends, but the uncaring, nearly always unfazed Mikoto admitting that Tatara was someone exceedingly important to him was really intense and even a bit comforting.

It was nice being wanted.

"Thank you, King," Tatara says softly. "Thank you for saying that."

Mikoto hums, then closes his eyes, as if having said his peace and was ready to hibernate once more. Tatara takes a moment to stare at Mikoto, almost certain that he can feel Tatara's soft brown eyes on his face before the dainty brunette finally scoots close again and presses his face into Mikoto's chest to get warm and sleep, feeling lighter than air.

Tatara dreams of water. It was as if he was standing beneath an ocean, the water coming up over his head bobbing up and down, giving him only moments to gasp for air before he submerged once more. Tatara could hear the sound of a baby coughing and crying off in the distance, even as he tries desperately to breath. Something kept holding him down.

Try as he may, Tatara simply could not swing his arms around. It was as if each of his wrist and upper arms held a hundred pounds on each of them, making it impossible for him to try and push himself to the surface. He could feel someone's large hands on his shoulders holding him down but he couldn't figure out how to dislodge their hold over him.

His mouth and nose filled with water and his lungs burned from the lack of air and fear raced up and down Tatara's spine. At that moment, the only thing that mattered to Tatara was a big, clean, undisturbed breath of air to fill his lungs to capacity. Even his legs, try as he may, just would not obey him in knocking away the person who was holding him under the water. He just wasn't strong enough.

He hears something through the defining waves of the water around his ears. It sounded like a small girl, whimpering and crying, apologizing over and over again. Tatara couldn't place the voice right away but he knew he should know it somehow. His mind was too frenzied, desperate for air that it just wouldn't be coherent enough to put a face to the voice.

It didn't take long, though, before another voice pierced the darkness of his mind and his clouded hearing. It was a boy's voice calling out to him. His name being said. Something else. The person holding onto him fights with something, trying desperate to hold him under before everything fades completely to blackness. It was as he was drifting away into nothing that Tatara heard a soft, low voice whisper something that played off the shell of his ear.

"I will always look after you..."

Tatara bolts upright, swallowing lungful of air, brown eyes darting around the room to see that he wasn't under the water somewhere, but laying peaceful in his bed.

"Tatara?" Mikoto steps out from around the corner, turning the light off in the bathroom before stalking closer, golden eyes flickering over to the rapidly beeping heart monitor, watching as it starts to slow down.

"It was a nightmare..." Tatara says, rubbing his forehead. "Wow, and a strange one."

"How so?" Mikoto asks, sitting down on the bed next to Tatara.

Tatara shakes his head, not really understanding it himself. "I dreamed that I was drowning."

Mikoto's eyebrows raise to his hairline, as if he wasn't expecting that to be Tatara's answer. "Really..."

"Yeah," Tatara says softly, rubbing the back of his neck now before laying back into the uncomfortable. "Maybe I've been in this hospital too long. I need to get out of here, King. I think I'm going stir-crazy."

Mikoto hums, laying down next to him again, folding his arms behind his head. "In a few days," he says, firmly. "Go back to sleep."

Tatara nods, feeling too scared of the world around him to disagree with his King. He rolls away from Mikoto this time to a cool part of the bed, trying to cool down his heated body. After a moment of tossing and turning, Mikoto sits up and turns on the overhead fan before laying back down and closing his eyes as if to sleep again. Tatara smiles thinly, feeling better than before.

With the cold air of the fan above blowing down on him, Tatara curls up again with his King. But the dreams of water, and drowning in them, stayed with him.


End file.
